28/02/2018 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. First came the bitterly cold air, then the snow,

and more of us had snow on Tuesday,

and there is more to come this week,

into some areas that haven't seen much so far.

"Bracing" is one word to describe

this view from North Yorkshire on Tuesday.

Doesn't it look lovely, though?

And for those who say, "It's never a story unless it snows in London,"

here's a view of some snow in London on Tuesday.

Now, we know why it's so cold - well, we've talked about it enough -

the air coming from Russia, Siberia.

Bitterly cold across a large swathe of Europe and into the UK.

The flow of air changing slightly - it was from the north-east,

it's becoming more of an east-south-easterly flow

coming in, and that's just changing the area

seeing the heaviest snow showers over the next couple of days.

And this is where the Met Office

has an amber "be prepared" warning in force -

parts of north-east England, up into eastern Scotland,

much of the Central Belt as well.

Widely within this zone, 5cm to 10cm.

There will be more in places, especially on hills.

Drifting in the wind as well.

Some particularly nasty travelling conditions

as these showers continue to feed in through Wednesday into Thursday.

Elsewhere, the snow showers are more scattered during Wednesday,

with sunny spells, but they're capable of delivering

a few centimetres here and there.

And, believe it or not, it's even colder -

some places not getting above freezing.

You factor in the wind and, for some,

it will feel like it is minus double figures.

So it's even colder, the wind actually is about to pick up

a bit further as we go through Thursday into Friday.

This area of low pressure, Iberia,

named by the Portuguese weather service for impact there

as Storm Emma, is going to feed up moisture -

as you can see going into Thursday -

into the cold air in place across the UK,

and that means more snow. Not snow showers,

but an area of more persistent snow feeding into parts

of southern England, particularly south-west England, into Wales.

The winds picking up as well -

that means the risk of seeing some blizzards,

and we still have snow showers feeding into eastern Scotland,

a few for Northern Ireland.

It is still bitterly cold for most.

But this next area of snow is why the Met Office

has another amber "be prepared" warning -

you can see the area it covers for Thursday,

where we could see some blizzards and significantly disruptive snow.

So very much keep across this part of the forecast.

Going into Friday, this area of snow expands

and starts to push its way further north to Northern Ireland -

you can see it's stretching down into south-east England.

Something to play for in how heavy this snow is going to be,

so again we'll keep you updated on that.

Still some snow showers into eastern Scotland.

It's a little less cold to the south of this area of snow.

And that's another story as we go into the weekend.

The big picture for the weekend is that area of low pressure.

It's a complex pattern to the south-west,

but it's dominated by low pressure.

That's in control, so you know it's going to be unsettled.

But look at this - this is rain showers feeding into southern parts.

Less cold air feeding into the UK around this area of low pressure.

You can see the flow of air - it's not from Russia, Siberia,

it's coming up from the south-west.

But still it's an easterly feed

coming in to northern parts of the UK,

particularly into Scotland.

So although it is a little less cold, it is still cold enough

to produce some snow, even going into the start of next week.

So the picture into next week - it is less cold for many of us,

particularly across southern parts of the UK.

It's low pressure, so it's unsettled - it's often windy.

It will be wet at times because it's low pressure,

but because there's still some cold air,

particularly across northern parts of the UK,

we're not yet out of the woods when it comes to snow.

But at least it's not going to be as bitterly cold

as it is at the moment. And that's how it's looking.