BOOKIES have slashed the odds on this October being the coldest on record – as wind and rain are set to lash Britain this week.
Ladbrokes have cut the odds of the “coldest October ever” from 10/11 to just 1/2 as weather experts predict temperatures to plummet.
The chilling news comes after a weather expert warned we could be set for the coldest winter for 30 years.
But Britain will only be plunged into the freezer after what’s predicted to be the wettest Autumn for nearly two decades.
The UK was drenched by 122mm of rain on average in September – making it the wettest first month of autumn for 19 years.
Now, bookies say temperature records could be broken before the end of the month if the mercury continues to drop.
Ladbrokes spokesman Alex Apati said: “It’s snow joke.
“We’re expecting this to go down as the coldest October ever.”
Wet and windy weather is on the way in the coming week — with the showers rolling in this morning.
Met Office meteorologist Steven Keats said: “Rain over parts of Kent and East Anglia.
“Otherwise mainly dry with some clear spells.
“Cold with frost in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.
“A few fog patches possible.”
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Parts of the north will also start to see frost appear this week – and mornings will be chillier than they have been recently.
In some places the mercury could dip to -4C and the high in some places will barely hit double digits.
Mr Keats added: “On Monday morning parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland could be down to as low as -3C and -4C in some spots.
“In the northeast and north it could be as low as -2C and -3C.
“There will be some chilly mornings to watch out for – and some frost as well.
“By Tuesday it will be around a high of 10C in Northern Scotland and about 15C or so in the south.
“Nights will be chilly and there will be more overnight frost.”
Weather forecasters fear Britain is about to be plunged into a miserable wet and snowy winter — the coldest in 30 years.
Exacta weather expert James Madden said: “October is now looking like it will turn out to be colder than average with more of a chance of something wintry setting in through the second half of the month.
“There is a strong chance of widespread frosts and the chance of snowfall which will set the scene for November.
“This will pave the way for what is shaping up to be a colder than average winter with some extreme cold weather events.
“While these could start to make an impact within the next few weeks they will be particularly troublesome from December onward.
“Snow events have been few and far between in recent years, but this winter is looking favourable to bring snow event after snow event as weather systems from the Atlantic clash with cold stagnated air over the UK.”
That could mean a bitterly cold spell to rival the freezing winter of 1963 – which is said to have been the coldest for 200 years.
Mike Saunders, a professor of climate prediction at University College, London told The Sunday Times last month: “This would rank the 2020 January-February central England temperature as the coldest winter since 2013.
“It would also rank January-February 2020 as the seventh coldest winter in the past 30 years.”
Temperatures are predicted to go as low as -14C, reminiscent of the “Beast from the East” which covered the UK in a blanket of snow in 2018.
