26/02/2018 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. If you've been

watching our forecasts

for the last few days or so,

I can tell you straight away

the message is unchanged.

Disruptive snowfall is expected

in the week ahead

and different parts

of the country

will be

getting snow on different days.

The cold air that's come

all the way from Russia

has pretty much engulfed

the whole of Europe, the UK,

Ireland and is even now

pushing out into the Atlantic,

that doesn't happen

very often.

In the short term,

the weather's not too bad.

There will be some flurries of

snow during the course of the night

and into Monday morning

across eastern areas of the UK.

So, yes, some of us early on

Monday morning

will be waking up to

a fresh covering of snow.

Nothing too thick we don't

think at this stage and,

in fact, for most of us,

Monday is actually

not looking bad at all.

There'll be some sunshine around

and occasional

passing snow flurries.

Most of the snow flurries

will be across eastern areas,

but they will become

a little bit more frequent

during the course of the afternoon

and they will push inland

to some western areas as well.

So, anywhere on Monday could

have at least a few flakes

of snow, if not a light covering.

Most of the day the temperatures

will be below freezing,

they may peak at

a couple of degrees or so,

but it will feel like it's minus

five degrees

because the winds

will be strongest

out of the east across

the southern half of the UK.

And then Monday evening,

the snow showers

really gather pace

across the North Sea and

we're watching this area here.

This has actually prompted

the Met Office to already issue

an amber warning for

heavy, disruptive snow

across some eastern

and central areas of the UK.

This is what it looks

like early on Tuesday morning.

So, disruptive snowfall falling

across parts of Lincolnshire,

into the Midlands,

possibly as far west as Birmingham.

There'll be some heavy snow showers

in other areas as well.

And through the course of the day,

the snow showers may

become relentless

across some eastern parts

of the country.

So, by the end of Wednesday,

could be a good covering here

and there.

The same pattern continues

into Wednesday,

the snow showers pile into

eastern areas

and you get that message

that it's the east

that initially gets

most of the snow,

whereas out west,

it looks like the snow cover

will be quite patchy,

cold during the day,

below freezing for most of us.

Now, just how thick will that

snow cover be across the UK?

Roughly 10-20 centimetres

across the eastern counties,

whereas further south and west

you could see just from a dusting

to perhaps just as much as

5 or 10 centimetres.

But that is just a

very rough guess for now.

Thursday, early in the morning,

a widespread frost across the UK,

obviously,

and through Thursday itself,

the weather could

really go downhill.

And I must stress that across

some southern parts of the UK,

on top of the heavy snow,

we could have gale force winds

and with that, some drifting.

And the problem is that this

area of low pressure here

drifting out of the

south will get caught

in the cold current of air

coming out

of the near continent, so that means

that all of this here will be snow.

Watch what happens

through the morning,

snow falling from Cornwall,

Devon,

through central southern England

into the London area,

Wales, the Midlands too.

You've got gale force winds

here with snow,

that effectively is a

blizzard.

It's still not a certainty

but a possibility

and that will be disruptive across

the south.

And watch what happens

during the day,

that low pressure here

just lifts northwards

and engulfs much of the UK,

so all of this here is snowfall,

and to the south

we could even have a spell of

potentially some freezing rain

which could be even worse.

So it's important to stay updated

with the latest weather forecasts,

these things can change,

but we are pretty certain

that there will be some problematic

weather

in the coming days.