While a slice of Northern and Western Europe basked in warm African air dragged up from the south, much of Eastern and Southern regions of the continent were descend upon by a brutal Arctic air mass from the north - this contrast serving as yet more evidence of the weak and wavy meridional jet stream associated with low solar activity.
For more on that, click here.
Below I've compiled a list of a few of the all-time cold records that tumbled in SW Russia over the Easter weekend (data courtesy of www.hmn.ru):
- In Bezenchuk, -6.3 degrees was recorded which broke the previous record set in 1978 by a whopping 2.5 degrees.
- El'ton dipped to -1.7 degrees, enough to beat a 90 year old record.
- -4.4 degrees was measured in Frolovo, beating the 1945 record.
- In Dombarovsk, -8.2 smashed the former record of -4.9 set in 1998.
- And in the village of Yekaterino-Nikolsky, the mercury plummeted to -8.3 degrees breaking the previous record of -6.1 degrees set 63 years ago.
North Africa and the Middle East are also experiencing anomalously frigid temperatures for the time of year.
Comment: And in other parts of the world the erratic seasons and extreme weather also continues to increase: