Weather guru: I knew Beast from the East was coming last spring because of the blackberries

An amateur climatologist who says he predicted the recent devastating cold snap as far back as last July today hit back at his critics and said he knew a freeze was coming because of blackberries.

He had written on his website as early as July that he believed the country would be in for a particularly harsh, long winter.

Shunning more widely-accepted methods of predicting the weather, the retired Met Police constable uses thousand-year-old moon charts and studies plants, birds and animal behaviour to forecast the weather.

He said he “went out on a limb” to make the forecast, which he first began to anticipate last spring when he noticed blackberries had appeared early.

Weather guru: David King has been practicing his traditional methods of divining the weather for 40 years
David King

The weather guru said: “The Met Office and other experts said it was absolutely impossible to go that far ahead, you are just guessing.

“People were saying what an idiot, what a burke. But the methodology was good. Nature told me it was going to be cold.

“The 1,000 year old technology beats £97 million Met Office computer and their experts every time.

“A few red faces now around after the adverse comments – but he who laughs last laughs longest.”

Mr King, who said last year that March would see “most un-spring like weather”, said a key reason behind his prediction was last year’s “very early" spring.

He said: “Last year [spring] was a month early. The early spring told me that we had a long hard winter coming.

“The Blackberries were really early. There were a number of features that were consistent with 1991, which was also a particularly long cold winter.”

Speaking this week Mr King, from Edenbridge, Kent, said his views never changed, but rather they were confirmed after a long ramble in early January.

He said: “On that ramble I saw no signs at all of any approach of spring, no leaf burst formation, no greenery, not one sign of life, bar the sole bluebell stem and one crocus.

“That for me is sufficient evidence that indeed there was a long hard winter still to come.”

Looking forward, Mr King predicted wet weather into the spring and summer.

He said: “The very cold weather is going to last on and off through March. Spring is going to be a month late. Everything now is late for the year.

“April, May and June will likely to be both very wet and colder than 2017. By June 20 the summer starts getting warm but not hot – warm and damp.

“Nature will pour copious rain upon us in the spring and sadly too, for a lot of the summer.”

UK Weather: Beast from the East freeze - In pictures

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Mr King has been practicing his traditional methods of forecasting the weather for the last 40 years, and gives advance warning to farmers, growers, horticulturalists and many of those for whom the weather plays a key part in their occupation.

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