Video footage from yesterday shows wintry scenes at a frozen pond in Madrid, where ducks could be seen walking around on the ice while fish weren't able to feed - news that comes as a León weather station reports Spain's coldest ever day on record elsewhere in the country.
The clips were filmed on 6 January at Retiro Park, which lies in the centre of the Spanish capital city.
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One shows two ducks walking around on top of the frozen pond, while in another video we see fish opening their mouths in futile attempts to eat pieces of bread, unable to reach them from beneath the surface of the ice.
A third clip also shows ducks strutting around on the half of the pond that's frozen - seemingly unaware that on the other side, people in rowing boats are moving around happily in the unfrozen water.
All of the unusual drama unfolded on the same day that a weather station in the northern Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia reported a record-setting -34.1°C (-29.38°F).
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The data was shared by the Projecte 4 Estacions (Project 4 Stations) group, which reports on weather forecasts and temperatures in Catalonia and Andorra, after being picked up by a station located at a height of about 2,305 metres (7,562 feet) on Tuc de la Llanca Mountain - which is part of the Pyrenees, located in the province of Lleida in Catalonia.
Today, however, that record was beaten once more, with a new reported temperature of -35.6ºC (-32.08ºF) at Vega de Liordes in León.
Project 4 Estacions tweeted: "NEW MINIMUM TEMPERATURE RECORD IN THE IBERIAN PENINSULA.
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"A station located in Vega de Liordes (Picos de Europa) has reached a temperature of -35.6ºC at 07:08, surpassing the record reached yesterday in Clot del Tuc de la Llança."
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Currently, the official record for the coldest temperature in Spain is -32°C (-25.6°F), which was recorded in 1956.
Many other parts of the world are experiencing especially cold conditions at the moment, with the UK predicated to face another 'Beast From the East' style onslaught at the end of this month.
Researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Exeter and Bath found that a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event is currently unfolding high above the North Pole.
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The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), involved the analysis of 40 observed SSW events.
Lead author of the study, Dr Richard Hall, said there was an increased chance of extreme cold, and potentially snow, over the next week or two.
He added: "While an extreme cold weather event is not a certainty, around two thirds of SSWs have a significant impact on surface weather. At the moment it is hard to say whether this event is going to be a split or displacement type."
Featured Image Credit: Newsflash/@carlosgon96
Topics: Weather, World News, News, Spain, Animals
