Met Office gives snow forecast verdict amid arctic blast reports

Snow can be a blessing and a curse. Yes, everything looks like a Christmas postcard, but icy roads and train delays aren’t the best.

After days of snow, ice, rain and Met Office weather warnings, temperatures rose slightly earlier this week, thawing out the UK.

But don’t pack away your scarf or snow plough just yet, the national weather service has warned.

Another polar blast, this time from North America, is just around the corner.

When could it snow next? Met Office verdict

Well, it will kind of snow.

In its latest forecast, the Met Office says there’s a chance of ‘snow grains in the south’ today. Elsewhere, it will be cloudy with the odd patch of rain.

Snow grains look a little like bean bag filling – white balls of ice no larger than 1mm.

‘Snow grains are the solid equivalent to drizzle,’ the Met Office says, adding that they occur when the mercury is close to zero.

And in some places, it will be well below zero. Temperatures are set to tumble to as low as -3°C in parts of Northumberland and County Durham.

‘Chilly’ is the Met Office’s one-word forecast for Sunday, with meteorologists saying there will be more snow grains in the south.

A ‘severe cold spell’ will smash into the UK this weekend that will mainly impact the south.

‘A cloudy outlook through the start of the new working week, with showery rain spreading erratically eastwards,’ the Met Office says.

‘Temperatures generally around average in the north, but chilly further south.’

By Wednesday, the southwest will be increasingly lashed by rain and wind. And get used to it, the Met Office adds, as the end of next week will be far wetter and windier than it is now.

‘There remains a small chance that colder air from Europe may continue to feed into northern Britain, especially at first, increasing the chance of snowfall here,’ the Met Office says.

Brief cold snaps could follow, bringing fog and frost with it that could last until mid-February.

Where will it snow?

The weather, experts admit, is especially unpredictable at the moment.

The Met Office previously said in its forecast for Monday to Wednesday that there would be ‘a small chance’ that the icy winds would lead to snow showers.

But it seems there’s a good chance that snow will fall in the north next Thursday, according to Exacta Weather.

‘Despite recent changes to output, the current and very latest runs from the [Global Forecast System] would be cold enough in combination with expected weather features to bring ample, frequent, and widespread heavy snow showers across some large parts of the UK and Ireland from around next Thursday,’ the forecast service’s James Madden said.

‘Snow will also fall earlier in the week across parts of the far north and potentially into parts of northern England, particularly across higher ground at first (Monday to Wednesday) before increasing in risk to much lower levels later on.’

Are there any weather warnings?

None at the moment. Weather officials only enforce warnings if the weather will impact day-to-day life, such as causing travel disruption.

But a raft of cold weather alerts issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) are in place.

The alerts, in effect until next Tuesday, warn that the chilly weather will likely have ‘minor impacts on health and social care services’ and may pose a ‘greater risk to life of vulnerable people’.

The only region of the UK not under a yellow alert is the South West.

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