A quieter day of weather is in store across central and eastern parts of England following yesterday's low pressure system that brought some disruptive snowfall in places along with some strong and cold northerly winds. A ridge of high pressure has built in overnight meaning it's a very cold start to Thursday, and whilst this ridge hangs on to bring a mostly dry and bright day today, the next set of weather fronts will be gathering out to the west.
Thursday dawns frosty and icy in many areas with temperatures having dropped to as low as -5°C in some sheltered regions. There are some scattered wintry showers feeding into northern and western coastal regions though and these will continue for a time today before tending to become fewer and further between by this afternoon. Otherwise for most places it will be a cold and bright day with some good sunny spells around, but temperatures will be on the chilly side despite the sunshine with maximums of 2°C to 6°C. The main exception will be across the far southwest of England and Ireland where a band of cloud and some rain or sleet will be trying to push in from the southwest, but it won't make too much north-eastwards progress today.
Many northern and eastern regions of the UK will be cold and frosty tonight with a sharp frost forming in the north where minimums of around -10°C are possible in places. Meanwhile out to the south and west freshening winds will bring outbreaks of increasingly persistent rain during the second half of the night, this rain reaching much of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and southwest England by dawn, perhaps turning to snow as it meets that cold air ahead of it. This rain continues to push north-eastwards tomorrow, bringing the risk of some significant snowfall for the Pennines before drier and milder conditions follow on from the southwest, but for much of Scotland it will remain bright and cold.
METEOROLOGIST: BARBER
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