Winter is coming...

Snow is forecast for as early as October, and violent snowstorms predicted. It is due to the strong El Nino which has the potential to knock the UK weather out of kilter. Colder Altantic Ocean temperatures are the cause.

The Met Office said after an unsettled few weeks ahead temperatures will dip below average going into October.

Temperatures in the Gulf Stream, which is the warm ocean current that runs up the eastern coast of America, have dipped dramatically over the past year, according to the experts.

The stream merges into the North Atlantic Drift which usually pushes warm water towards the west coast of the UK.

However, the sharp reduction in speed and temperature of the current has left the UK and Ireland without any buffer to a bitter Arctic influx.

Experts fear a repeat of the worst winter in history, in 1963, when temperatures plunged to nearly -20C that January. It was so cold the sea froze off the Kent coast.

That went on to be the coldest month since January 1814, with an average temperature of −2.1C.