Britain could be hit by snow and ice in the coming days as temperatures plunge below the average for March.
The Met Office said a highly amplified jet stream will push colder weather from near Greenland towards the north of the United Kingdom by the weekend.
Meteorologists say that could then lead to disruptive snow in areas by the beginning of next week.
However, the disruption isn’t expected to be as severe as the conditions witnessed in 2018 when Britain was struck by the ‘Beast from the East’.
It comes as a deep freeze has gripped Europe in recent days, with snow even covering some of the continent’s most favoured summer holiday destinations.
Explaining next week’s forecast, Aidan McGivern, from the Met Office, said that during the weekend, low pressure over the Mid-North Atlantic would start to feed energy northward and allow high pressure over the United Kingdom to migrate towards Greenland.
He said that at the same time, there’s a highly amplified, very perturbed jet stream.
He added that it loops around this low pressure and then pushes all the way back to the north of the high pressure that’s developing over Greenland, allowing this northerly feed that’s allowing the colder weather to push into the north of the United Kingdom by the end of Saturday.
Mr McGivern added that the cold air would most likely be pushed into the north and east areas of Britain, though the pattern could change as the week progresses.
He said that as that happens the low pressure from the south and the west was likely to push in and mix with the cold in the north and east, leading to some disruptive snow in places by the start of next week.
The Met Office’s long-range forecast for the rest of the month also warns of wintry showers and heavy snow. However, any disruption in the coming days isn’t expected to be on the scale of the snowstorm dubbed the Beast from the East.
Mark Sidaway, the deputy chief meteorologist with the Met Office, told Sky News that although there had been a sudden stratospheric warming event and other drivers pointing towards colder conditions in March, at this stage there was a low chance of having widely disruptive winter weather like that of five years ago in March 2018.
It comes as regions of the continent renowned for its hot temperatures, including the French island of Corsica, have been covered with snow this week as Storm Juliette sweeps across the Mediterranean.
Saying that, it’s a bit of bad weather, expected for this time of the year. It’s not like we’re going to war, or all dying of bird flu, although numerous pensioners with the cost of living crisis could freeze to death – but watch this space because anything could happen in the next ten minutes!
But it’s all about doom and gloom, and let’s face it, there’s a lot of that about.
The weather is all about models and predictions that indicate it could occur, but they can’t predict which way the front will go, and if it does come our way we might get some sleet or snow, maybe even a few cold spells, and we will deal with it, but it always gets sensationalised by the weatherman.
Let’s face it, an inch of snow on the high ground isn’t going to batter Great Britain, but the chilly weather could batter an old-aged pensioner, and as usual, Scotland will likely get some snow, and the rest of the UK might get a tad chilly.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 