Newspaper editors know that there are a few stories that they can put on the front page which will increase circulation and one of those are extreme weather stories.
Weather sells newspapers and every time they have a front page story on extreme weather, their circulation goes up by around 10% hence the front page stories this weekend that sub-zero temperatures and violent snow storms are about to hit the UK as soon as October.
The reasons given for a shivering winter for us Brits is a combination of freak ocean cooling in the Atlantic caused by El Nino and the slowing Gulf Stream caused by melting ice caps.
The source of the dire weather warnings are a small private company called Exacta Weather but the MET Office, the main authority on all things meteorological, are not so sure that the mercury is going to plummet to -20C as Exacta announced, saying they expect the temperatures at the end of October to be around the average.
Exacta gave the same dire warnings last year, stating then we could expect one of the worst winters in history which turned out to be one of the mildest on record but unperturbed, they have dusted off last years predictions and put them out again, this time throwing the El Nino effect into the pot.
Personally, i would go with the data from the MET Office rather than the sensational headlines on the front of the tabloids which is there to sell newspapers and if it happens and we do all have to dig out the thermal underwear at the end of October, then it can say it was right and the Exacta Weather company will get a large boost while we will quickly forget that it got it completely wrong all those previous years.
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