Week Ahead – More snow and a bitter wind
Cold weather will last all week, although as the wind eases from midweek it won’t feel quite as bitter. Snow showers continue in eastern parts and then there’s chance of snow in the west at the end of the week but details are uncertain at this stage.
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00:00Hello. Welcome to your weather for the week ahead from the Met Office, a cold week of
00:05weather ahead wherever you are and for some more snow to come as well. Cold easterly winds
00:11for the next couple of days means that it's in the east where we're going to continue
00:16to see some heavy snow showers. Later in the week, eyes turn further west. There's quite
00:22a bit of uncertainty about how things progress beyond Thursday, but the potential for a bit
00:27of snow in western areas then. More on that in a moment. First of all, let's deal with
00:32the next couple of days. OK, here's the big picture at the moment. Low pressure down across
00:37the near continent to the southeast of the UK. Tightly packed isobars on the northern
00:42flank of that means easterly winds. Cold air being drawn down across the UK. Across the
00:50North Sea, that cold air picks up moisture. That combination of cold and moisture meaning
00:55snow showers peppering the eastern side of the country for the next couple of days. Notice
01:01that there's no weather fronts. The showers are being generated just by the air flowing
01:06over the North Sea and that means they'll tend to form in bands. So we'll see some areas
01:12sitting under a band of snow showers seeing a lot of heavy snow, whereas just a few miles
01:18away you may not see much at all. So that means that we've got a yellow warning in place
01:23covering the eastern side of the UK where we'll continue to see snow showers. But for
01:28amber weather warnings, when those warnings need to be escalated, they'll probably happen
01:32at quite short timescales because we'll need to see exactly where those bands are setting
01:36up. Now, we have an amber warning in place across parts of Scotland for most of Tuesday
01:41through parts of Stirling and Perthshire in particular where we could see 20 to 25 centimetres
01:46of snow. The snow showers generally down the east, adding up to a few centimetres more
01:52falling on what's already there could again cause some travel disruption. Much of the
01:57west looking dry for most of Tuesday, just the odd snow flurry getting in. But it's cold
02:03whether you've got the sunshine or the frequent snow showers, temperatures struggling to get
02:07much of a two or three degrees. And there is a significant wind chill. The wind will
02:12be stronger on Tuesday across southern England, particularly in the southwest compared to
02:17Monday. That's going to make it feel even colder. This is what it feels like. Minus
02:21four to minus seven Celsius. So a bitterly cold day on Tuesday. The wind's strengthening
02:27because there's a little low pressure just squeezing to the south of the UK. That could
02:30bring some wet weather for time across the Channel Isles before that scoots away. And
02:35then on Wednesday, the isobars just opening out a little bit. That means the wind's perhaps
02:39not quite as strong and not as many snow showers in eastern Scotland, but certainly further
02:43snow showers expected across eastern England. And notice they'll still be in those bands.
02:49Much of central and western Britain looking dry on Wednesday with some sunshine. Again,
02:54it's going to be cold one to three degrees, but the winds will be easing a little bit.
02:59So perhaps not feeling quite as cold on Wednesday. But with those lighter winds comes colder
03:05nights and it looks very cold indeed. Wednesday night into Thursday, the isobars opening up
03:11so light winds. Temperatures could get down to minus 15 in parts of Scotland, minus 10
03:17in rural parts of northern England. But notice there is a weather front approaching out to
03:21the west that is pushing in and the winds are switching more to the south. That wind
03:26will be still bringing a very cold feel through Thursday and January. Probably a bit more
03:32cloud in the west with perhaps some wet weather creeping in as well later on. Not as many
03:39showers in the east for sure, perhaps a bit more in the way of snow across the northern
03:44isles. But for many on Thursday, it looks dry, still colder, two or three degrees for
03:48most and still a significant wind chill. But it's all about these weather fronts trying
03:54to push in from the west. Notice they've got some milder air with them as well, but they
03:57will be hitting that colder air. So where we do see these weather fronts, they are likely
04:02to bring some snowfall. But it's a big question about where, because it's a battleground.
04:07How far in will that milder air get? Where will these weather fronts lie? And it could
04:11bring some significant snow. But there's quite a lot of uncertainty at this stage. So make
04:16sure you stay tuned, stay up to date with the forecast. But we could start to see some
04:22snow in the west later this week. Most of the week, though, staying on the cold side.
04:27There are those weather warnings in place at the moment. So check those out as well,
04:31either through the app, through the website or the best place to stay up to date is to
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