AS the country prepares for a white Easter, Joe Willis asks if fears that this would be the worst winter for 100 years have proved correct.

BACK in November the national newspapers were full of it.

The most “savage winter for more than a century” was on its way. Blizzards and freezing temperatures would bring the country to a standstill. Temperatures would plummet to an Arctic -20C.

After the second wettest year on record, forecasters were predicting one of the worst winters ever.

As a shivering nation is warned of more snow to come over the Easter weekend and into April, it may appear as if this winter has been particularly severe and long-lasting.

But has it been the worst for a century?

“No,” says meteorologist Mike Cinderey unequivocally.

Indeed, Mr Cinderey, an Associate Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, based at Carlton-in-Cleveland, who has been recording details of the weather for more than 30 years, believes it’s not even been the worst in the last decade and compared to some of the renowned harsh winters in the 20th century, it barely registers.

Mr Cinderey says the late snow is not even that unusual, with more snow tending to fall at Easter than Christmas. This year’s downfalls are nothing more than on a par with those in 2009 and 2010, he adds.

And while this winter’s temperatures have been low, they have not reached the depths feared – the lowest being about -10C. Very low temperatures are not deemed a good indicator on how severe a winter is anyway. All you need for the mercury to plummet well below zero is a clear winter’s night, little wind and a covering of snow.

The meteorologist admits this winter has been one of the coldest since the early 1980s when there were three or four very chilly winters in a row, but no more than that. The winter of 1982/83 was notably long with blizzards towards the end of April prompting police in Barnard Castle to put up stranded motorists in the police station.

The following year, snow cut off villages and left 40,000 North-East homes without electricity.

Looking back further, 1978/79 stood out because of the harsh weather and because of the political unrest at the time – the infamous Winter of Discontent.

The snow was so bad – 15ft drifts were reported – that in February 1979 a Minister of Snow was appointed to deal with the crisis and an entire round of the FA Cup was postponed for the first time in its history. Like this year, the blizzards continued well into March.

But the harshest winter in living memory has to be 1962/63 when the snow started on Boxing Day and the big freeze lasted until March.

Lakes and rivers froze across the country and snowdrifts of up to 20ft deep were reported.

Temperatures dropped as low as -22.2C on January 18, 1963, in Aberdeenshire, and the average was said to be the lowest since 1740.

While customers and staff at Britain’s highest pub, Tan Hill Inn, near Reeth, were this week snowed in for five days, the landlord and lady in 1963 were stranded for more than two weeks. Help only reached the couple after the authorities were alerted to their predicament by a reporter from The Northern Echo’s sister paper, the Darlington and Stockton Times.

“This winter has been long and cold but nothing exceptional,” concludes Mr Cinderey.

SO if this winter’s hasn’t been particularly bad, what has it been?

“The continuation of a run of remarkably wet and cold months which started last March,” says Mr Cinderey.

Scientists believe the reason for the wet summer - and cold winter – are linked to the jet stream – the high-altitude river of air that steers storm systems and governs most weather in the Northern hemisphere.

One theory is that the position of the jet stream which dictates UK weather, is being changed by the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice, which it is believed is disappearing as a result of climate change.

While it was previously the widely held belief that climate change would mean global warming, experts now say it will mean more variations in weather – potentially more droughts, more floods, more storms and more snow.

While this winter may not have been the worst on record, it’s the fourth cold winter in a row during a period which has seen dramatic storms, heavy flooding and unseasonal droughts.

The Government's outgoing chief scientific adviser Professor Sir John Beddington said this week that these variations were a direct consequence of climate change. So what does the mean for the weather will this summer and beyond? The only prediction seems to be more unpredictability.