Temperatures plunge to -13c on UK’s coldest night in 20 months and Britons couldn’t cope

Britain had its coldest night of the year as temperatures dropped below freezing across the country — falling to -13C (8.6F) in Shropshire.

Clear skies overnight saw temperatures plummet below the -12.4C (9.6F) low recorded on Saturday night — with the Met Office recording a new low in Shawbury, north east of Shrewsbury.

As school closed, flights were cancelled and public transport ground to a halt, many took to Twitter to laugh at the very British response to the weather.

In particular, users mocked a Santa’s Grotto in Birmingham being closed due to snow, as many laughed at London’s light nearly non-existent snowfall.

Demi Maynard tweeted: “If you don’t say ‘it’s bloody freezing’ at least 5 times a day, are you even British though?!?”

Cumbria Weather, meanwhile, urged southerners not to travel… but told northerners they would just need their “big coat”.

And the cold weather and sarcastic tweets look set to continue, with yellow weather warnings still in place today.

Widespread disruption continues. In parts of Gloucestershire, 36 homes were without power for a second night after ice and snow caused disruption across the country over the weekend.

Meanwhile, dozens of schools in the South West, West Midlands and Wales will keep their gates closed for a second day following the bitterly cold conditions.

The country has also woken up to freezing fog patches with rain and hill snow expected later in the day.

Met Office meteorologist Craig Snell said: “It’s still possible that it could go lower but in Shawbury we saw -13C (8.6F) which is the coldest night of the year so far.

“We have to go back to the night of February 13/14 2016 when we saw -14.1C (6.6F) in Braemar for the coldest before that.

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Temperatures plunge to -13c on UK’s coldest night in 20 months and Britons couldn’t cope

“Benson saw -9C (15.8F) and Kew Gardens in London had -4.2C (24F) and Teddington saw -4.8C (23F).”

He added that there was the potential for a “dusting” of snow on higher levels over coming days, and that there was a risk of problems caused by rain falling in already icy areas.

“It will take a good few days for the snow to melt away,” he added.