Will it snow in the East of England? Weather expert explains as cold weather is expected

There's been a lot of talk about it turning colder and the potential for snow, so I just want to explain where the complication in the forecast arises for the East of England.

• Is it going to snow in the East of England?

The short answers is yes, it will.

However, in this type of set-up, snow showers are forecast and as in the nature with showers, not everyone will see them.

East Anglia is no stranger to snow showers and in a northerly wind in the right air mass, Norfolk often receives snow.

Depending on how strong the breeze is, the showers can push much further south to Suffolk, Essex and Cambridge, as well as further west to Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

• When will it snow?

The transition to much colder air starts on Sunday. By then, the breeze will pick up and although the maximum temperature will reach about 6C, it will feel much colder than this.

• The forecast for Monday in the East of England

A northerly wind will set up and in an Arctic air mass, that means showers will begin to develop over the North Sea.

The air pushing over the North Sea is much colder than the temperature of the water, so the relatively warm sea will bubble up cloud in the colder air and the showers will fall as a mixture of hail, sleet and snow.

So not everyone will catch a wintry shower, but they are in the forecast.

• The forecast for Tuesday in the East of England

This is a little more complicated. Through all of Tuesday, there will be a northerly wind.

However, a very small area of low pressure is developing to the south of Iceland and it is possible there may be a little dusting of snow on Tuesday.

Any heavier snow will be reserved for Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. By the time the weather front reaches us in the East of England, it is unlikely to have much moisture left, so nothing more than a dusting of snow. 

It is worth noting if the weather front is further west, we will miss it altogether and sunshine and wintry scattered showers will be the day's weather.

• The forecast for Wednesday in the East of England

For the last week or so, the weather computer models have been highlighting this as the day to watch out for, as mild air was forecast to push in off the Atlantic, meeting the cold Arctic air to produce a spell of significant snow.

However, the latest run of weather models have better agreement and are signalling the mild air to stay across the Channel, potentially given southern coastal counties of England some snow cover.

• So what do we know?

It is going to be cold! Very cold and there will be scattered wintry showers.

However, we don't know the orientation of the low pressure to the southeast of Iceland and the location of the mild air on Wednesday in the Atlantic - however, the latter seems more certain and will likely stay across the Channel.

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