Arctic freeze forecast for UK – is your home draught-proofed?
Posted onFew would argue that here in the UK, it has been an unbelievably mild winter so far. One of the warmest and wettest on record, according to the Met Office. For me, it provided an amusing theme over the Christmas break, finding people dressed for summer in the middle of winter. Two days before Christmas I met up with a friend at the shops, and found him comfortably wearing only an Hawaiian shirt and jeans; then, when I told my five year old son to get dressed to go and visit his grandparents on Boxing Day, he chose a t-shirt and shorts (it wasn’t cold enough for me to bother arguing it).
To many others however, the effects of the El Niño event (the largest in 20 years) meant storms Desmond, Eva and Frank brought terrible flooding to areas of the UK. Storms Frank and Eva together flooded 16,000 homes in northern Britain, leading to misery for those affected. Although there is debate over over whether climate change played a part, it seems likely, as for every 1°C of warming, the moisture in the atmosphere increases by 6%, charging weather systems with extra energy and increasing rainfall.
The weather is about to change though, and it seems we are in for more of the kind of temperatures that we normally associate with January. Early next week, strong northerly winds are forecast to bring freezing air from the Arctic, meaning widespread frosts and also snow to some areas (unfortunately this may include some of the flood-hit areas). Speaking to the Independent, Met Office forecaster Emma Boorman said:
“By the latter stage of the weekend and the beginning of next week we’ll see the wind direction change to more of a northerly and that’s going to be pulling in significantly colder air. We’ll be looking at widespread frosts overnight and the chance of some snow too. Particularly over higher ground in parts of northern Britain.”
As we know all too well here in Britain, the weather often does its own thing, keep up to date with latest weather warnings with the Met Office.
It seems like now would be a good time to address any areas of the home that may end up letting that Arctic blast in. That little gust around the window or the draught under the skirting board, not to mention the floorboard gaps in your beautiful stripped wood floor (have we mentioned that the gaps between floorboards in an average sized room can add up to the size of an open window?). StopGap will fix these draughts quickly and cleanly, with no messy adhesives and no faffing around cutting slivers of wood or lengths of different sized foam rubber.
If you order your StopGap by 3pm we will post it out by first class post the same day, so there’s still time to seal your draughts before the big chill hits!