Is the UK heading for ANOTHER Arctic winter? Met Office calls emergency meeting to discuss if melting ice is causing Britain to freeze



Dr Julia Slingo at the Met Office calling a meeting of world climate experts

She is concerned melting Arctic ice is causing Britain's climate to change

Comes after lowest April temperature for nearly 100 years was recorded



Britain's winters are getting colder because of melting Artic ice changing global weather patterns, the Met Office has claimed.

Forecasters are concerned that high levels of ice melt in the Arctic in recent years could be behind Britain’s increasingly bitter and longer winters.



The organisation’s leading climate change expert, Dr Julia Slingo, is to convene experts from around the world to establish whether this explains why Britain has been experiencing the coldest temperatures for almost 100 years.



Springtime in London: April snow showers in Kensington Gardens come amid Met Office claims that high levels of ice melt in the Arctic in recent years could be responsible for Britain's bitter winters

HOW DOES THE JET STREAM AFFECT OUR WEATHER?

J et streams are belts of fast flowing air found in the atmosphere which are formed near air masses with significantly different temperatures.

They are responsible for moving weather around the latitudes.

The Polar jet stream affects the UK, and tends to be further south in the winter and further north in the summer.

Recently, the jet stream has been further south - which is why the UK has experienced wet summers.

This winter, the jet stream split in two - part of the belt was at the bottom of the Mediterranean, and the other part was sitting at the north of the UK.

A band of high pressure blocked its path meaning the cold weather conditions stuck.



Figures released yesterday revealed that the temperature in Aberdeenshire fell to -11.2 degrees Celsius on April 2 – this is the lowest recorded April temperature for almost 100 years.



The news comes just after it was revealed that Britain also experienced the coldest March since 1962.



Dr Slingo is concerned that shrinking sea ice in the Arctic could be responsible.

‘If this is how climate change could manifest itself, then we need to understand that as a matter of urgency,’ she told ITV News.



There are a number of theories as to how melting Arctic ice could affect British weather.



One view is that the warming of the Arctic has the effect of reducing the jet stream – the fast-moving river of warm air which controls our weather patterns – and that this could cause Britain to be subjected to longer periods of unmoving weather, such as the cold weather that has recently affected the country.



This winter, the jet stream split in two - part of the belt was at the bottom of the Mediterranean, and the other part was sitting at the north of the UK. This caused the prolonged period of very cold weather

If the Arctic experiences rapid ice melt then a large amount of very cold water is released into the ocean.



This cold water can disrupt the normal path of the jet stream which usually keeps Britain much warmer than its latitude suggests it should be.



As a result, we can be subjected to much colder weather than normal.



Dr Jennifer Francis, a research professor at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, told ITV News that the UK's geographical position makes it particularly vulnerable to changes in the Arctic.