Weather maps have predicted that large patches of snow are to hit the UK in days. Less than a week after Britain was blasted by blizzards, it looks as though more severe weather is on its way.
On January 16 at 6am, WXCharts suggests that snow will cover areas of Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire in England. There’s also an area on the maps predicted to be hit by snowfall, seemingly in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and the purple patch then crosses the border in Scotland, where snow usually falls when the wintery precipitation hits the UK. Scottish areas due to be covered by snow include East Lothian, Midlothian, Edinburgh, Scottish Borders, Dumphries and Galloway, South Ayrshire, East Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian, North Lanarkshire, Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Falkirk and East Dunbartonshire.
A separate patch rises up to Perth and Kinross, Angus, Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Highlands.
The Met Office has issued its own separate forecast for between January 15 and 17, which does not mention snow.
It reads: “Further rain through the coming week. Temperatures around average in the south, but cold in the north. A spell of heavy rain and strong winds possible on Thursday night.”
Its predictions for January 17 to 26 read: “It will likely remain changeable for the UK as a whole through this period. Further areas of low pressure moving in from the Atlantic will tend to dominate, meaning showers or longer spells of rain for many parts.
“Wet weather will probably be most prevalent across western areas, though given the potential for low pressure systems to become slow-moving in the vicinity of the UK, heavy rain is possible anywhere at times. Periods of windy weather are also possible at times.
“There are also likely to be some drier, more settled periods though, mainly towards the east. Temperatures will probably be near normal overall, though the possibility exists for some colder spells in the north and east, with the potential for associated winter hazards.”
Experts emphasise that predicting snow in the UK is tricky.
They write: “As it’s so cold high up in the atmosphere, most precipitation either starts off as snow or supercooled raindrops.
“As it falls to earth, it moves through warmer air most of the time and melts. Depending on the temperature of the air near the ground we either see rain or sleet or hail.
“However, the freezing level (usually the boundary at which precipitation will fall as snow rather than rain) doesn’t just stay the same every day, or even within a day, sometimes it can change hour by hour, across the country, or even a few miles down the road.”