Met Office gives verdict on Beast from the East alert with long-range forecast | Weather | News

The Met Office has published its long-term forecast and given its verdict on a possible ‘Beast from the East’ arriving in the UK soon. The agency issued a series of warnings as the country suffered a severe frost earlier this month, covering hundreds of kilometers of land with ice and snow.

Cold conditions have caused yellow, amber and even the rare red weather alert; It warned that cold and snow could pose a “danger to life” and even disrupt the lives of communities as temperatures dropped below 0C in the worst-hit areas. However, some of the worst conditions may be yet to come, with weather maps showing a burst of snow across the country and temperatures dropping as low as -12C towards the end of January. Weather maps show that a severe cold snap is poised to set in, and the first signs of a potentially more severe cold spell begin to take shape around January 28. Maps from WXCharts show a blanket expanding more than 600 miles across the country by Jan. 30.

The first signs of snow look set to arrive on January 27; The showers will first hit Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland at around 6am that morning.

Increasingly heavy snow, falling at rates of up to 0.4 inches (more than a centimeter) per hour, is expected to cover nearly the entire country over the next 12 hours. By 6pm the band of snow will stretch from Colchester in the south to just below Inverness in Scotland.

After stopping briefly for a day, the snow will pick up again on January 29, painting the entire country from end to end (more than 600 miles), settling up to five inches deep.

At 6am on Friday, January 30, only London and the easternmost coast of England, the westernmost coast of Devon and some limited parts of south Wales will be snow-free. At the same time, temperatures will drop to extremely low temperatures and maps will show between -1 1C and -6 6C in England and -5 5C in Wales.

In offshore Inverness in Scotland, the mercury can only drop to -12C between 12am and 6am, allowing snow to settle on the ground as it falls.

In its latest long-term forecast, covering the same period (January 20-29) as the WXCharts maps, the Met Office said the UK would come under “some influence from the east”, which could produce colder conditions “later in the period”. The transition “increases the likelihood of snowfall across the country,” the agency said.

Forecasters said: “During this period the UK will see a battle between Atlantic weather systems trying to arrive from the west and high pressure and cooler conditions trying to exert some influence from the east.

“Milder Atlantic weather is expected to prevail initially. This will generally maintain cloudy, showery or longer rainy weather conditions. The weather is wettest in the western parts of the country and drier in the east. Temperatures will generally be around average, with some overnight frosts in the more exposed areas. Later in the period, conditions will be more likely to cool further.”

“This aspect of the forecast is still uncertain, but the possibility of a shift to colder weather also increases the likelihood of snow in some parts of the country.”

But Met Office spokesman Grahame said temperatures would remain close to average “for the foreseeable future”, adding that the cold weather forecast could easily change before January maps show heavy snowfall. He said: “Colder weather is not expected to return to the UK in the near future. Temperatures will remain close to average for most of next week.

“While there is still a slight chance that easterly winds will bring coolness in the last week of January, there is still a long time before the forecast changes. For now, it is equally likely that milder southern weather will persist and keep the cold at bay.”