Cold Spell To Be Extended?Added : Saturday at 14:00 Yesterday we talked about how the upcoming cold spell looked set to be broken down by a push from the Atlantic later next week with milder south-westerly winds trying to return, but with pressure patterns remaining interesting to the northeast so the cold could quickly return,
Model guidance over the last 24 hours or so has trended towards the imminent cold spell being extended rather than a temporary milder blip and this is all down to a possible and significant rise in pressure over Scandinavia. This is only a trend at the moment and nothing is certain, but it keeps up the very interesting winter of model watching.
The cold air to the northeast is starting to filter its way south and west today:
And will have extended to much of the country by tomorrow, bringing the risk of significant snow for parts of East Anglia and southeast England:
Much of the coming week is then dominated by bitter easterlies bringing snow showers in off the North Sea, especially to eastern coasts:
However, you will notice by Thursday that a frontal system is trying to push in from the west bringing some milder air with it, but as it meets the cold air so it could bring snow:
It's not only out to the west that we should be looking though, as the GFS ► 6z run, along with the 00z GEM and ECMWF ► runs, is showing a significant pressure rise over the frozen snowfields of Scandinavia later in the week:
Although it looks like it could be turning milder, and in fact may well do so across Ireland, much of the mainland UK would still be firmly in the grip of cold air at the surface:
Lots to keep an eye on this week then with the risk of snow in places, severe penetrating frosts, significant wind chill and a possible extension of the cold, especially for the mainland UK.
METEOROLOGIST: BARBER |