A 109-mile stretch of snow is heading to the UK, as parts of Britain appear to be skipping autumn and heading straight for winter. On October 12, the latest weather maps swathes of purple will descend on the nation, bringing both snow and heavy rainfall. This comes days after Storm Amy hammers the UK with gale-force winds and torrential rain, with the Met Office issuing several weather warnings.
At 12pm on October 12, a large area in Scotland will be hit by the snowfall. A smaller area at the top of the Highlands will see up to 0.4cm per hour of flurries, while a wider, heavier stretch of snow will hit western Scotland, bringing up to 0.6cm per hour. The band of snow will stretch across to Aberdeenshire and down to Perth and Kinross. While the majority of the area will be covered in lighter snow showers of 0.2cm per hour, more eastern parts of the country will see heavier flurries of snow at midday on October 12.
The rest of Scotland is expected to see heavy rainfall on this day, with Wick, Fort William and Glasgow set to receive 0.6cm of rain per hour.
Snowy conditions can be influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) – the primary pattern of atmospheric circulation variability over the North Atlantic region.
According to a weather expert, while snow is a “rarity” in October in the UK, it only “takes one solid Arctic blast” to bring the wintery conditions.
Meteorologist Jim Dale told the Express this week: “Snow in England during October is now an unusual event, one could even say a rarity. It takes a northerly outbreak to happen at all, and even then it tends to be northern hills only. There’s not too much on the charts that suggests snow as an event, even if we do see a temporary northerly on Sunday or Monday. So for now I’d say November is far the more likely and later November at that.”
“Still, it only takes one solid Arctic blast, so all to play for.”
Mr Dale added: “I’d expect a covering across the higher Highlands before October is out. Not that unusual.”
The Met Office says: “In its positive phase, lower than normal sea-level pressure occurs near Iceland and higher than normal pressure over the Azores.
“This enhanced gradient in pressure strengthens the westerly winds from the Atlantic bringing milder maritime air to the UK but also increased rainfall and more wind storms.”