THE COLDEST winter for more than 30 years will be capped off with more miserable weather, forecasters have predicted.

The UK has already seen the lowest temperatures for more than three decades according to MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association.

And East Lancashire weatherman, Roy Chetham, who runs a weather station at Huncoat, said his records showed the December and January snow as been the longest lasting since 1991, with temperatures at their lowest since 1987.

He also stated that December and January so far ranked sixth in the league of severe winters.

Mr Chetham said: “The cold spell has been caused by a weak and meandering jet stream directing Atlantic depressions over the Mediterranean region leaving us susceptible to Artic and Continental influences.”

The weatherman recorded the lowest temperatures in Accrington at -10°C, with the lowest in Britain in Altnaharra in the Northern Highlands of Scotland, at -22.3°C.

This week, conditions look as unsettled as ever, as a warm front moving northwards from Cornwall will bring more snow across parts of the country.

Tom Tobler from MeteoGroup said northern England could see two to five cm of snow.

MeteoGroup said that using the Central England Temperature series, which covers a large area from Lancashire to Oxfordshire, this winter was the third coldest in the last 50 years and 10th coldest in the last 120 years.

Michael Dukes, forecast manager for MeteoGroup, said: "It has been a remarkable winter.

"Perhaps not quite as snowy as winter 1981/2, but the longevity of the cold is something most of us have not been used to."

He said it was too early to issue a forecast for the weather in spring and summer this year.