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The Telegraph
The Telegraph
National
Neil Johnston

UK weather: Ice and snow warning as Met Office predicts fortnight of cold snap

Scotland snow - Peter Jolly Northpix
Scotland snow - Peter Jolly Northpix

Swathes of the country are braced for snow and ice as forecasters warned the cold snap could last for a fortnight.

The Met Office said snow and ice are expected across much of England, Wales and Northern Ireland on Monday night, the Met Office has said.

The forecaster has issued a flurry of weather warnings and said temperatures in parts of the UK will drop below freezing on Monday and will not top mid-single figures during the day until Thursday.

Up to 30cm of snow could fall in isolated spots across Scotland while other areas could see 10-20cm of snowfall. This week could see the coldest day of the year so far with temperatures in some areas falling as low as -10C or -15C.

A yellow weather warning has been issued for London, the Thames Valley, East Anglia, parts of the Midlands and South Wales from 9pm tonight until 10am on Tuesday.

An identical one will be in place in Northern Ireland at the same time while a warning for snow and ice is already in place in much of  Scotland and North East England.

The area covered by the warning is set to extend as far south as Hull from Tuesday before it lifts at 10am on Wednesday.

Grahame Madge, from the Met Office, said temperatures could drop to -1C in Manchester and 2C in London on Monday night.

Even colder overnight conditions are set to hit cities later in the week, with the mercury plunging to -4C in London and - 6C in Birmingham and Belfast. Conditions are expected to be even colder in the north of Scotland.

Mr Madge said weather could be similar to those experienced during a cold snap in December 2022 and may not lift for almost a fortnight.

“Temperatures will be much, much colder than we would expect at this time of year,”  he said.

“The pattern will set in for some time. We have got this feed of cold air coming in from a much higher latitude.

“We expect these conditions to remain in place until at least next weekend and possibly longer because sometimes these conditions can be quite stubborn and not easily subject to change.”

uk weather - Gren Sowerby / Animal News Agency
uk weather - Gren Sowerby / Animal News Agency

The Met Office warned travel disruption is likely and journey times by car, train and bus may take longer than usual.

People are at risk of slipping and falling on icy patches of untreated roads, pavements and paths while some rural communities could become cut off from the power grid.

The UK Health Security Agency has placed north-east England, north-west England and Yorkshire under a level three cold weather alert, with the rest of England at level two, until midnight on Thursday.

A level three alert means there is a 90 per cent chance of severely cold weather, icy conditions or heavy snow, which could increase the health risk to vulnerable patients.

The coldest temperature recorded last March was minus 9.1C in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire while on March 14, 1958, the mercury dropped to a record low of minus 22.8C at Logie Coldstone, Aberdeenshire.

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