Another week of weather chaos and misery has been forecast to hit the UK after a weekend of snow, ice and plunging temperatures
The UK has been battered by snow and freezing temperatures this weekend but the bad weather is set to continue with a new front hitting in just a few days.
A string of weather warnings have been announced across the UK since Friday and while the nation will get better weather on Monday, it won’t be long until the winter misery continues. A new weather system is expected to bring more unsettled weather to the country. This new batch of poor weather is due to hit on Wednesday, February 18. Snow is expected to hit the UK on Wednesday evening.
The ECMWF weather model has indicated the first areas to be impacted on Wednesday could be Northern Ireland, Wales, and western parts of England.
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The flurries could continue into Thursday, with up to nine inches expected to settle across the Scottish Highlands. The snow is also forecast to move across most of central and northern England.
This chilly weather front is even expected to bring a blizzard across the west coast of Scotland and northern England from around 6pm on Thursday – from Glasgow to Carlisle.
The first two days of the week, before this freezing weather, are not expected to be sunshine and dry skies marking no break from the gloomy days.
Unsettled and blustery conditions with showers across the whole of the country are forecast to start on Monday, which will ease into Tuesday.
This comes after 74 flood warnings and 162 flood alerts in place across England on Sunday morning. Jonathan Day, flood duty manager at the Environment Agency, said more than 24,000 homes and business have been protected but about 330 have been flooded.
A snow warning is also in force covering parts of eastern England until 4pm today. This warning says “a spell of snow may lead to some disruption to travel”.
It adds: “Rain moving eastwards through Sunday morning is likely to turn increasingly to sleet and snow. Slushy accumulations of 1cm or so are likely, with a chance of 2-4cm should snow turn briefly heavier, this more likely for the Lincolnshire Wolds and parts of Norfolk and Suffolk.”
The weather forecast doesn’t seem to get much better after this weekend’s sting of warnings and the mid-week blizzard. The Met Office’s long-range forecast between Friday February 20 – Sunday March 1 said: “Showers or longer spells of rain, as well as occasional strong winds, are most likely at first as Atlantic low pressure systems dominate in the vicinity of the UK.
“Some heavy rain is likely in places, with some snow probable at times, mainly on high ground in the north. Temperatures varying from around, or a little above, average especially in the south to cold at times, mainly in the north.
“Although unsettled weather is likely to dominate at first, there will be some drier interludes between weather systems. These drier interludes will become increasingly likely and perhaps more prolonged through the period.”
