Independent (UK): You might think the current weather conditions are almost Siberian — and you’d be right. Britain’s most prolonged spell of freezing weather since 1981 is being caused by a huge mass of intensely cold air over north-east Russia, with easterly winds sweeping its glacial temperatures across northern Europe to the UK. And just as in the 20th century’s coldest ever winter in Britain, of 1962-63 — although not on such a severe scale — the cold is being held in place over the British …