A British Weather Service meteorologist has revealed the seven UK counties which could be blasted with snow and freezing conditions when a “Beast from the East” hits next week
Seven counties around the UK are set to be blasted with snow next week, with experts warning we could be set for a “proper Beast”.
British Weather Services’ senior meteorologist has told the Mirror of three possible scenarios for severe winter weather which is set to hit early next week, which is starting to come over from the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Sweden.
Predicted to hit from Wednesday, January 21, the experts have dubbed it a “Beast from the East”, adding: “What we need to see [for a Beast from the East] is something a little bit more sustained that’s got weight with it, with the weight obviously being snow – not just the cold direction of wind.
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“But at the moment it is dry. We have to wait for something a little bit more sustained, a little bit more with something in it, and by that I’m talking about the ingredients of snow.”
Outlining the possible scenarios people in the UK could experience, the meteorologist said it could be standard, cold easterly weather, where nothing much happened.
The second, he predicted, could be a “proper Beast”. He explained: “We get the cold Easterlies, and behind that we get developments within the continent below the high pressure, coming across the North Sea.”
Because of this, he said the eastern counties of Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk are three of seven counties which could face the horror of the cold weather.
Once it’s hit the UK, it “can’t be shifted by the stuff coming from the Atlantic,” the weather expert explained. He continued: “The point about that is that as it’s trying, this is the third one, you get that mix of very cold air trying to stop the milder air coming in, and you get big snow events either way.
“So two of those can potentially give us a lot of snow. The crippling one will be the Beast from the East that stays there and just is continual frost, ice, snow, all the rest of it.”
They added: “If it is a proper Beast, I think we have to be on the lookout for significant snow, widespread, becoming more widespread across the country from east to west in time.
“If there was a Beast, it would likely come from January 21. If it’s a damp squib, it could last a couple of days. But if it’s a proper Beast, where we start to get the infiltration of snow, it could well last into the early part of February without a question.”
The expert said the other counties which could face the severe weather are: Essex, Lincolnshire, East Riding of Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire and East Sussex.
It was also suggested that it “wouldn’t be unusual” for the bad weather to last anywhere from a week to a week-and-a-half.
