It's an unusual day in March. Mancunians are used to the weather gods delivering plagues of unseasonal cold, but today (March 9) is really taking the biscuit.
There's snow falling - sort of. It's not fluffy flakes this time, it's sticky sleet which coats the city's pavements and melts just as quickly. Everything seems to be running relatively smoothly, too - trains are working as well as they normally do in the north, buses are grumbling their way up Portland Street, and taxis are blaring horns across Deansgate.
But there are signs that the freeze is biting. Old ladies are shuffling past high street stores, but it's too cold to spare a minute and stop for some window-shopping.
