West Cheshire College’s Chester base forecasts potential weather surprises for February

Jan 22 2010 by Mark Dowling, Chester Chronicle

FURTHER spells of snow and icy weather could be on the way next month, according to West Cheshire College.

The big freeze, which had an icy grip on the UK, saw temperatures in Chester hit a record low.

West Cheshire College’s weather station, based on the roof of its Chester campus in Handbridge, has monitored the conditions in the city since 1997.

It recorded -10.5°C at the peak of the cold weather, beating the previous coldest temperature of -9.8°C, which the weather station recorded in 2006.

And Rob Bale, of the college’s weather department, said there could be more wintry weather to come.

He said: “As far as the rest of the winter goes, we could well see a cold February.

“The Met Office is now predicting a colder than normal winter and some other weather organisations are predicting a reload of the very cold conditions as we go into the new month.

“This winter has seen a big atmospheric pattern change over Northern Europe compared to recent years and we could be in for a few more surprises weather-wise over the next six weeks or so. Watch this space.”