It could be a picture straight from the hand of an Old Master – an image highlighting the fading yellows of autumn against the icy white of winter.
Taken early yesterday in London’s Richmond Park, as temperatures plunged to -7C, two early risers enjoy a stroll past the Royal Park’s misty stream, with the frost crunching beneath their feet.
The Arctic blast that has caused this sudden dip in temperature looks set to linger for two more weeks, until around December 10, when milder, wetter and windier weather is expected to push in from the west and north-west.
Latest forecasts predict temperatures will then return to ‘near or above average overall’ as the festive season approaches.
However, anyone hoping for a white Christmas can take encouragement from a Met Office warning that ‘this doesn’t rule out some spells of cold weather and associated wintry hazards’.
Walkers enjoy the freezing fog in Richmond Park south-west London as temperatures plunged to -7C
Pantheon on the National Trust’s Stourhead estate in Wiltshire covered in morning frost.
Windsor Castle was barely visible this morning in the mist after freezing temperatures.
A man scrapping overnight ice from his windscreen in Bromley, South East London.
Anyone hoping for a white Christmas can take encouragement from a Met Office warning that ‘this doesn’t rule out some spells of cold weather and associated wintry hazards.
The second photo, of the Pantheon on the National Trust’s Stourhead estate in Wiltshire, provides another captivating image of contrasting colours in the transition from autumn to winter.
The 270-year-old temple folly and the woods surrounding it are brightly illuminated, while the lake and heavy frost covering the shaded landscape gardens are a stark reminder of chilly days ahead.
Met Office deputy chief meteorologist, Dan Harris, said: ‘Early next week we expect to see a return to widely cold but quiet conditions.
‘Some showers are likely to affect some parts of the East Coast, and these could turn increasingly wintry over higher ground areas towards the middle of the week.’
Southerners not so soft after all
Forget the so-called ‘southern softie’ myth – the Northern Irish are first to turn the heating on when the mercury drops.
Figures show the average family in Ulster cranked up the boiler when temperatures fell to 13.7C, thermostat firm Tado has revealed.
Households in the South East, meanwhile, braved conditions down to 12.8C. It was the Scots who took the gong for being the toughest, typically holding on until it was 11.9C outside.
But soaring gas prices seem to be weighing on us all – compared to 2019, Britons waited for temperatures to drop 0.5C further before our boilers were called into action.
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