"Europe braced for Russian winter The latest TWO 45 day forecast is now available here and points toward often very wintry weather during January and the first half of February. We expect temperatures to be significantly below the average especially in southern and eastern areas, and throughout the period there will be a higher than average risk of substantial snowfall.
Usually Europe looks towards the Atlantic for its weather during the winter and this generally brings rather unsettled conditions with some colder interludes but also long spells of much milder weather. Occasionally we have winters where we need to look towards the east and Russia for our weather and it looks as though this year may well be one of those.
High pressure has built strongly over Russia as is usually the case during the winter months. The difference this year is the high pressure is oriented in a way that is likely to project the coldest air westwards instead of siphoning it off towards Greece as has often been the case during recent years.
The extent of the cold we can expect in the UK is very unclear because often milder weather from the Atlantic will encroach up on us and determining where this stalls looks like holding the key to forecasting the mid-winter period this year. The option we are favouring is for temperatures during the 45 day period to be at least 2C below the average with the likelihood of one or possibly two severe spells of wintry weather. The coldest spells are most likely to be middle January or middle February. Although there is much uncertainty about the extent of the colder weather in the UK, we do think conditions for a prolonged and notable cold spell in the rest of western and central Europe are very favourable."

anche gli inglesi vedono la possibilita' di una forte ondata di gelo proveniente da est che dovrebbe colpire l'europa centrale, io dico che se non rivediamo il vero freddo da est questo inverno non lo rivediamo piu'!