A wintry storm is set to spiral over the British Isles next week, with snow potentially falling at a rate of 5cm per hour across large swathes of the country. The 12-hour Arctic blast comes amid Met Office warnings that a cold air front from Europe could “increase the chance” of snowfall as January draws to a close.
WXCharts maps, utilising Met Desk data, forecast almost all of Britain turning purple on Saturday, January 25, signalling the arrival of heavy snow. Brits may find themselves waking up to a winter wonderland, with several areas expected to be blanketed by the early hours. Snow is predicted to start in the West Midlands, north-east, and north-west, as well as parts of Scotland from midnight.
Cities including Birmingham, Manchester, parts of North and West Yorkshire, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Inverness are particularly at risk. By 6am, a vast area of the UK is likely to be covered, with snow extending from Southampton to Inverness. Temperatures are set to stay low, averaging 0C nationwide and dropping to -1C in Edinburgh, reports the Mirror.
Snow depth charts for midday on January 25 indicate significant parts of Wales, northern England, and Scotland could see settled snow, with accumulations near Manchester reaching 7cm and 8cm in the Scottish Highlands. This forecast follows a Met Office warning that a cold snap from Europe might “increase the chance” of snow as the month ends.
The Met Office’s forecast for the period from January 22 to January 31 states: “A transition to a rather more changeable and at times unsettled weather pattern is likely to occur during the first few days of this period. Outbreaks of rain and freshening winds will probably make inroads from the southwest during Thursday ahead of conditions more widely becoming wetter and windier by next weekend.”
“Whilst a milder, wetter and windier scenario is considered most likely, 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. Towards the end of January, further periods of strong winds and heavy rain are likely to move in from the Atlantic. Whilst generally mild conditions look to close out the month, some large day to day changes in temperature are possible.”
(Image: WXCHARTS.COM)
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