9:42am Wednesday 16th December 2009
HAMPSHIRE is on the brink of being plunged into freezing Arctic weather conditions which will bring snow to the county.
Temperatures are forecast to plummet to -5 degrees Celsius, the coldest the county has seen this year.
And last night a few snowflakes were reported to have fallen in Southampton, Bitterne and Lymington.
It will be colder than Stockholm in Sweden, Reykjavik in Iceland and Anchorage in Alaska, when the weather front sweeps across the county later today.
A Met Office forecaster said: “It has been cold already this week but today will see the start of the really cold weather.
“The cold front is still very much coming our way from the east and it’s going to bring freezing conditions with it.
“Even before it arrives there may well be snowflakes falling over higher ground in Hampshire.
“Ice on the roads is going to be a real problem because there is going to be some pretty sharp frosts.
“The really cold weather will be coming in this afternoon and there will be snow in parts but nothing that’s going to settle.
“Daytime temperatures are going to be about one or two degrees but with a wind-chill factor of about -5.
“At night it will be even colder, and definitely the coldest it’s been this year.
“The good news is it should ease off into the weekend.”
She added it was “very difficult”
to tell whether Hampshire could look forward to a white Christmas.
Bosses at Hampshire County Council reassured drivers that the county’s salt supplies were fully stocked.
Councillor Mel Kendal, Executive Member for Environment said: “We actively monitor salt stocks and we also carry out regular checks at depots, so I am confident we can deal with any long periods of freezing weather.”
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