A very dry December and very cold start to 2009 has hit nature hard on National Trust land on The Lizard. Data from the Met Office reported a temperature of -7.8 Celsius on the night of the 6th/7th January: the coldest recorded temperature at Culdrose on the Lizard in a January for twenty years Figures from the Met Office showed that Culdrose actually recorded three consecutive hard frosts with temperatures also falling to -4 Celsius and -5 Celsius, making it one of the coldest starts to January in the area for many years.

The cold snap has been bad news for the common frog tadpoles, wiping out a whole generation of frogs as their shallow breeding pools have been turned to thick ice with heavy frosts on three consecutive nights. Its also made life more difficult for the Cornish chough, which are found on the Lizard, as it feeds by poking its beak into the ground to get at small invertebrates. The frost this week has also penetrated deep into the soil, potentially affecting some winter annuals.

The common frog has adapted to breed in October on the Lizard Heaths because of the warmer climate found on the peninsula. Tadpoles appear in December/January and frogs appear in March, when most frogs are just beginning their breeding cycle. With very little permanent water on the Lizard, most of the frogs breed in old cart tracks and temporary pools on the heaths Over time the frog population on the Lizard is likely to make a full recovery; however, the long term impact of our changing climate is likely to make them more vulnerable to erratic weather patterns.

Thanks to the Gulf stream and relatively warm prevailing south westerly winds, the Lizard Peninsula in south Cornwall has one of the mildest climate in mainland Britain with an annual mean temperature close to 11 Celsius. Severe frosts are rare. This micro climate has seen nature adapt to the lack of frosts; and animals and plants have managed to survive through the winter months, often breeding and growing much earlier that elsewhere in England. Because of the mild weather water supplies are usually plentiful and they benefit from a lack of competition from other species and predators.

The Lizard has a diverse range of plants including some Mediterranean species at their northern limits. For example, Fringed rupturewort, Herniaria ciliolata, (which grows in sparsely vegetated and hot places) and Land quillwort, Isoetes histrix, (which lives on rock outcrops on the Lizard), are more usually found around the Mediterranean. The Winter annuals - Land quillwort and Pygmy rush - could have suffered as a result of the cold spell because they are in the middle of their life cycle and at their most vulnerable.

Because of its warmer climate the Lizard has become home to many invasive species of plant such as Hottentot fig from South Africa, winter heliotrope (from SW Europe) and the Three Cornered Leek (from S Europe). These plants can seriously affect the native plants found on the peninsula. Its likely that the cold snap will have hit these plants hard as they are more vulnerable to frost damage because they flourish in warmer climes.