British Gas urges UK households to make six-item emergency kit amid winter warning
Concerns that a 'polar vortex' could put the UK into a particularly cold winter has led British Gas to recommend that households make sure they're stocked up on six things in particular.
Up until now you might have been thinking that this has been an unseasonably warm October, but the high temperatures cannot last forever and soon winter will be upon us.
The Met Office previously explained to LADbible that the dry conditions in Britain wouldn't last, and that cooler conditions from the north would be coming, which meant colder air and chillier weather.
As for this potential 'polar vortex', it's linked to the development of the 'Super’ El Niño.
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The Met Office said of that: "Through the latter part of the winter, following a peak in El Niño, the stratospheric polar vortex (SPV) can become weaker, leading to an increased chance of Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) events unfurling, increasing the potential for cold weather.
"However, significant as El Niño is, it is important to emphasise that it alone does not determine precise weather patterns and other outcomes remain possible."
Amidst the potential for colder weather in the coming months, British Gas told the Manchester Evening News there might even be 'a temporary sprinkling of snow over the highest ground' before we hit winter.
In anticipation of possible snow this winter, they've said there are six things UK households should make sure they have access to.
That includes having a supply of sleeping bags in the house, as well as extra blankets for warmth and warm coats to pop on in the event that you do have to go out and about.
As for your more immediate means, if you've got medical needs then they recommend you have a stockpile of those as well, as well as making sure you have a supply of drinking water and three days of food in the house.
Those are the big six, sleeping bags, blankets, warm coats, medicine, water and food, but for the sake of practicality they've also suggested you have a torch, batteries and a phone charger in working order as well.
Of course your phone probably doubles up as a torch, but it's best to have a backup.
They're not the only ones making lists of things you should have a supply of in the house, as energy supplier Direct Energy dug more into the details of what kinds of food you should be keeping a store of in your house.
They recommend you keep a good supply of bread, milk, snacks like crisps and biscuits, tinned foods, cereal and dried pasta.
These are the basic foods you'd expect to carry you through a crisis, and being dried out they'll keep for a long time so you don't need to worry so much about your reserve supply of canned foods going off.
Joe Harker