While the Aussies are sweltering, the UK is under inches of snow. Today is being seen as “round two” and UK plc is on the ropes after yesterday´s performance in the first round! The UK continues to struggle on the 2nd day of Arctic conditions with over 4,500 schools still closed. Anyone want to play the Secrets of Christmas slot?
Wales and the south west of England are being hit hardest and then it´s the turn of the north-east and the Borders of Scotland. And drivers in southern England have ventured out to find Monday’s snowfall turning to ice.
And with all the weather on the news, alot of the sportsbooks are jumping on the bandwagon and offering weather bets on their sites.
For example at Ladbrokes, you´ll get odds of 9.00 when we last looked as to whether the British low air temperature record (-27.2c) will be broken this February.
And the old favourite: you can bet whether the Thames will freeze over allowing you to cross on foot from one side to the other. Current odds? – 67.00 (hey, actually that doesn´t sound like a bad punt!
And at PaddyPower on the Snow Specials you can take a punt as to which city will recorde the coldest temperature this week.
Here were the latest odds on snow bet specials (correct at time of writing)
Specials
More snowfall in 2009 than 1982 4 – 1 (this looks like a good one!)
2009 to be the coldest on record 8 – 1 (hmmm- not sure about this with global warming etc).
Or forget about predicting a White Christmas- that never come off- what about predicting a White Valentines Day. Here are the current odds or scores on the doors for cities around Blighty:
Glasgow 6 – 4
London 2 – 1
Paris 4 – 1
Liverpool 13 – 8
Cardiff 9 – 4
Cork 5 – 1
Edinburgh 7 – 4
Belfast 3 – 1
Galway 5 – 1
Manchester 7 – 4
Dublin 3 – 1
Madrid 12 – 1
Those odds seem to have thinned somewhat after the last day or so….What´s with the Madrid odds? Surely these have to be bigger than 12 to 1.
If you are looking for the form- here are a few interesting historical UK weather facts for you:
LOWEST DAILY TEMPERATURE
Scotland -27.2 °C
11 February 1895 Braemar (Aberdeenshire)
10 January 1982 Braemar (Aberdeenshire)
30 December 1995 Altnaharra (Highlands)
England -26.1°C
10 January 1982 Newport (Shropshire)…(we remember this one, brrrrrrrrrr……living in Glos at the time).
Wales -23.3 °C
21 January 1940 Rhayader (Powys)
Northern Ireland -17.5 °C 1
January 1979 Margherally (County Down)
And the heaviest snowfall in recent memory Britain? That was 1947 (recorded anyway). There was snowfall every day somewhere in the UK between the 22 Jan and the 17 March 1947.
The heaviest snowfall in the UK going back a bit further was in 1695. It snowed every day in London for 5 weeks – and the Thames froze over. The snow didn’t fully melt until mid-April.
