The UK is set to be battered by a snow bomb lasting 12 hours – with the country urged to batten down the hatches in preparation for a cold spell as we welcome in the New Year
Britain is set to be blasted for 12 hours by an icy snow bomb – with the nation advised to prepare for a bitter cold snap.
Weather maps and forecasting charts from WX Charts, which uses Met Desk data, reveal wintry conditions sweeping across the nation following Christmas and the New Year. January 5 has been pinpointed as the date when the blizzard will strike, based on sophisticated modelling using the ECMWF HRES system.
Met Desk has cautioned that snow could begin falling from 6pm on January 4 – continuing through to January 5, with flakes still visible on forecasting charts at 6am.
READ MORE: Cold weather health warning issued across the UK for ChristmasREAD MORE: White Christmas chances as UK weather forecast gives last-minute snow prospect
The snowfall is expected to clear by midday – meaning a full 12 hours of precipitation, reports Birmingham Live. Areas under threat include Durham, Northumberland, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cumbria, West Yorkshire and Cheshire.
Staffordshire, East Riding, North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire may also experience light coverings. The Met Office outlook from January 6 onwards states: “High pressure will probably lie close to the UK through much of this period and bring a large amount of dry and settled weather, especially in the south, with rainfall most likely in the north.
“Temperatures are expected to be close to or slightly below normal. Toward the end of this period there is potential for more changeable or unsettled conditions to develop more widely.”
Netweather’s Terry Scholey commented: “Pressure remains high to the north and north-east, maintaining an overall east or north-easterly flow. So it’ll continue mainly dry with a few light showers, mainly in the east.
“With Christmas Day and Boxing Day likely to be the two coldest days, the showers could turn wintry but mainly on hills, making a white Christmas unlikely for most. Frost will be more widespread however, and patchy freezing fog may form in places too.
“Towards the New Year, winds may turn into a more northerly quarter. This’ll have the effect of lengthening the sea track of the air off a still relatively mild North Sea, making it somewhat less cold.
“But it should continue mainly dry, although probably with more in the way of cloud, restricting overnight frosts mostly to western areas.”
