How long will the UK cold snap last and how much will temperatures drop?

The potential for snow could increase into next week. Credit: PA

After weeks of rain and mild temperatures, winter has finally arrived across the UK bringing widespread overnight frosts and wintry hazards to many. 

How cold could it get?

Rural Scotland could dip as low as -10C in the next few nights, and down to around -7C in the south.

By day we are likely to be hovering around 2-3C in the north and in the south 3-4C on Tuesday but a couple of degrees up on that for the rest of the working week. 

A slight change in wind direction will bring a marginally less cold feel between Wednesday and Friday before turning colder again over the weekend and into early next week, thanks to a cold front sweeping in across the UK and the winds becoming bitter northerlies. 

How long will it last? 

Certainly for the next seven days and possibly longer. 

What about snow? 

Part of the reason that we have this cold weather is because high pressure is centered across the UK creating a cold easterly - then northerly - flow of air which is really dragging the temperatures down.

High pressure tends to give us largely dry and settled conditions so, whilst it will often be cold enough for sleet and snow to fall, there won't actually be much of it around.

Any snow for the rest of the week will be the result of showers rather than organised bands. 

We are expecting a cold front to push south across the UK on Saturday, which has the potential to bring a period of snow, but at this stage, it is expected that this will mostly affect eastern Scotland and north east England. 

The potential for snow could increase into next week but detail is still uncertain. 

Is it unusual to be this cold?

No - this is typical winter weather. 

The coldest ever recorded temperature in the UK was -27.2C in both 1982 and 1995 in Braemar, east Scotland, and Altnaharra, in north Scotland, so -10C is still some way off that. 


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