Beast from the East to unleash 656-mile wall of snow as subzero freeze covers Britain | Weather | News
The 656-mile-long wall of snow, stretching from London to just south of John O’Groats, will hit England before the end of January. WXCharts’ weather maps predict a major snowpack will form further east in Bulgaria and Hungary on January 30, before wintry conditions hit the UK at 6am the next morning.
The majority of Brits will wake up to extreme weather conditions on Saturday 31 January; The only places predicted to be free of snow will be Cornwall and Northern Ireland. WXCharts predicts temperatures will drop to -5C in parts of the country as Europe freezes into even colder conditions.
The maps show a broad white blanket stretching from coast to coast from Essex to Pembrokeshire, covering everything north of London and encompassing all of Wales, most of England and the majority of Scotland.
The south of England will be very cold, with low temperatures in the Cotswolds set to be -3C at 6am on Saturday, meaning there could be icy roads. While the Midlands might manage to get above freezing, the north could drop to -2C.
Temperatures in rural Scotland can drop to an icy -5C, but Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow can be around freezing.
Wales could fluctuate between freezing and -2C, similar to Northern Ireland where maps are predicting a large band of rain rather than snow.
The Met Office admits snow is difficult to predict, but also predicts cold conditions and snow in its long-term forecast for the next four weeks.
The Met Office said over the next two weeks there would be “a battle between Atlantic weather systems trying to come in from the west and high pressure and colder conditions trying to make some impact from the east”.
After a milder start to this period, the chances of colder conditions and snow are increasing.
At the beginning of February, the Met Office said there was “cold conditions affecting the UK and the associated risk of winter danger at times”.
He adds: “While confidence is naturally low later in February, there could be a shift to more widespread unstable conditions, accompanied by a near-average recovery in temperature.”
