Amateur Derbyshire-based weatherman Paul Carfoot has watched the mecury plummet to eye-popping lows this winter. Here, he offers an insight on the temperatures we have witnessed.

My interest in the weather goes way back to the 1960s when I was a young boy. Although I am interested in all aspects of the weather, I do have a love for the cold and snow. Maybe the harsh winter of 1962-63 sparked my interest!

During that famous winter, I was nearly 10 years old. Listening to the forecast every day on the BBC Home Service at 5.55pm and on BBC television seemed the most important thing in my life.

In those days, the forecasts were presented in a completely different fashion compared to today’s modern TV forecasts. There were no colourful graphics or computer-animated charts.

In fact, the charts had to be drawn painstakingly by hand, which must have taken hours to prepare. They were then shown with great enthusiasm by the BBC’s Met Office presenters. People my age will remember Bert Ford, Jack Scot etc. I loved watching their presentations, which helped develop my interest in the weather. They certainly educated me.

There is a paragraph on my website (burtonweather.com) stating that we no longer have cold winters. I will have to remove that line now as the last three winters 2008, 2009 and now 2010-11 have been very cold. In fact, the start of the 2010 winter was very harsh indeed. It also started extraordinarily early. By late November much of the British Isles was in a deep freeze. The cold which struck this country at the end of November has no parallel. Cold records were smashed at my weather station and other weather stations nearby, with -11.2C on the screen on November 28 and -13.6C on the ground. This was not just a record for November, but for any month since local records began in 1991.

We all know how cold December was. Records were broken yet again, with -12.2C recorded (-16.6C on the ground) on Christmas morning. And on December 7, we witnessed an incredible hoar frost (moisture in the air freezing over surfaces). These are quite rare in the UK though you see them in Canada. December’s cold temperatures easily exceeded the famous cold December of 1962, though with today’s modern heating and infrastructure, it has only been an inconvenience for most. In the 60s, many people suffered severe hardship as they had no central-heating or double-glazing. Keeping warm was hard work and difficult.

I remember having to scrape ice from the inside of my bedroom window to see outside in the mornings. Even my fish tank froze in my bedroom on one occasion. I remember my late father telling me that, because his hot water bottle had gone cold in bed, he chucked it out during the night. The next morning he found it frozen solid on the bedroom floor. The toilet was outside and that froze solid, too, so no flushing for weeks! How did we cope? That could never happen today with our wonderful warm rooms, bathrooms and electric blankets.

So, what has been causing this extreme weather? Well, there are several reasons. The jet streams, very strong winds at high altitude, normally blow from west to east across the north Atlantic ocean and to the north of Scotland. Over the last three years, and especially this winter, they have taken a more southerly or south westerly course. This has allowed unprecedented high pressure to build over Greenland, Iceland and the Arctic. Pressure has subsequently been lower to the south of the UK. This persistent and unusual pattern has opened the door to very cold Arctic winds. There is also talk among scientists that low solar activity over the last few years may be affecting the world climate. This is subject to much debate but there is no doubt that something is afoot, and whether these changes are for the long term or just a blip is, as yet, unknown.

Paul Carfoot, 57, is retired from Coors Brewers. He has run his weather station since 2005, supplies data to official sources and compares readings with a Met office observer.

This article is featured in The Derbyshire Magazine, which is available from all good newsagents, including Sainsbury's Westfield, priced at £2.25.