THE nights are drawing in, the Christmas lights are on - and now the cold snap has arrived.

Winter looked well on its way as Manchester saw its coldest night of the year at the start of the week, with minus temperatures gripping much of the region.

Temperatures at Woodford, Cheshire, were among the lowest, reaching -4C on Sunday night. City centre thermometers crept to -1C, while Rochdale felt a -3C chill.

Commuters will have to rise early to defrost their cars as experts predict the frosty weather could persist. A Met Office spokesman said: "Winds will be north-westerly for the remainder of the week, with daytime temperatures in the high single figures.

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"Temperatures at night will be three or four degrees in the city, but will be around zero in the suburbs and surrounding countryside.

"I wouldn't discount minus figures, and we can expect that one or two places will get isolated pockets of frost."

Lowest

The lowest temperature in the country was recorded at Aonach Mor, in Scotland, where it was -7C at the start of the week. Londoners enjoyed a slightly warmer climate, with temperatures of 3C.

And while the Met Office said it was too early to predict whether we would enjoy a white Christmas, amateur weatherman Harry Kershaw warned that we could be in for the sixth coldest winter of the century.

Mr Kershaw, 80, from Sale, whose forecasts this year have been uncannily accurate, said: "The mild October and the very wet June and July are all indicators of a cold winter.

"While there is no formula to the weather, history shows patterns that suggest we are due a run of cold winters.

"The last ones were between 1985 and 1995, and we have enjoyed mild weather since then, but that tends to change very suddenly.

"I expect that the first three weeks of December will remain mild, but I think we will have snow in Manchester by New Year's Day."

Mr Kershaw began forecasting as a merchant seaman.

He uses a system developed by the German army in the Second World War, which he says has been found by the Met Office to be 80 per cent accurate.

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