Cold weather forecast as Arctic blast sweeps the UK, but will it snow?
Temperatures have dropped this weekend, with people advised to get their big coat out of storage due to a blast of cold air pulled down from the Arctic.
Today is set to be the coldest, with freezing temperatures fairly widespread across Scotland, which comes after a rainy week with widespread flooding.
It was only 7°C in London, with temperatures even lower in some surrounding areas like Charlwood in Surrey, and Wattisham, East Anglia, where it was a very nippy 5°C.
Although the potential lows of -6°C in parts of Scotland forecast by the Met Office did not materialise in the end, it was still a chilly start to the day for many with frost in northern areas.
If you were hoping for snow, it’s not going to happen this weekend despite the chillier weather.
And it’s also bad news for anyone hoping to get another glimpse of the Northern Lights with cloud cover largely ruling out a repeat of the spectacular light shows over parts of the country this week.
The Met Office said of Sunday: ‘After a generally dry, bright and cold start, skies will gradually turn cloudy through the day. Feeling cold into the afternoon. Outbreaks of rain arriving in Northern Ireland by the end of the day.’
Overnight, rain will set in which could be heavy at times, particularly in the west. The wet weather will slowly clear tomorrow morning, but more rain will be back again on Tuesday when it will also turn warmer briefly. It will be cooler again from Thursday ‘with a few showers and sunny spells’, forecasters said.
Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said of this weekend: ‘For everyone we’re going to be feeling rather cold.
‘Over the last day or so we have drawn in quite a bit of cold air from the Arctic and that is sort of staying with us right throughout the weekend, so most of us will need a little bit of a coat on around at times.’
Mr Vautrey continued: ‘For everyone, whilst it will be drier than Saturday, it is certainly going to be feeling quite, quite cold out there with spots of sunshine around at times.
‘The best of the brightness is going to be further towards the east – eastern Scotland, eastern England, with cloud generally building from the west as we head throughout the day and there is the potential that we do start to see a little bit more rain arrive for Northern Ireland into the evening period, and that sort of heralds return to slightly more unsettled conditions as we head into the start of the new week.’
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