The Met Office has broken its silence over what lies ahead in the UK – with snowfall a big risk as we head towards the end of the month. WX Charts modelling, projected using Met Desk data, shows the risk of snow as we head away from Christmas and towards the final two weekends of the month.
The Met Office has warned the UK of a transition to “changeable” weather conditions owing to a mix of Arctic cold air, and tropical warm air as a major cold period strikes North America. The jet stream could bring stormy weather to the UK as a result.
In its long-range forecast from January 22 to January 31, it says: “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.”
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Nick Finnis from Netweather TV explained: “We could be entering a stormy period, perhaps with one or two named-storms bringing a risk of gales or severe gales along with a return of heavy rain increasing the risk of flooding. There could be cold polar maritime air following in wake of these low pressure systems, which could bring an increased risk of temporary snow over hills in the north.”
The Met Office’s long-range forecast continued: “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,” it added.