Frustrated at the mild weather we’ve been having while North America and eastern Europe shiver whilst they dig out? I feel your pain but at least we have something a little more January-like coming up this week.
It’s an unsettled open to the next workweek with gales or severe gales affecting the Northern half of the UK. Chilly as it may feel in the strong westerly wind this afternoon, this is relatively mild compared to what we can expect later Wednesday through the remainder of the week.
Bitter cold air currently over North America is beginning to sweep out into the Atlantic all thanks to a series of Pacific storms pushing mild air into the Western United States. This trans-Atlantic push of bitterly cold air is expected to arrive on our doorstep Wednesday as a cold front associated with low pressure up near Iceland opens the door to considerably colder feeling air with snow and ice becoming a threat to many.
As you can see from the below UK 850mb temps off the GFS, the air mass warms ahead of Wednesday’s cold front before sharply cooling behind!
Credit: chorleyweather.com
Credit: chorleyweather.com
Credit: chorleyweather.com
This air mass, albeit modified during it’s crossing of the Atlantic will supress daytime surface temps to between 1-5C Thursday but factor in a westerly gale, wind chills will be in the bitter category of -3 to -6C Wednesday evening and even during the afternoon hours Thursday as gale-force winds turn northwesterly and we’ve a direct discharge of polar air.
Credit: chorleyweather.com
Credit: chorleyweather.com
Credit: chorleyweather.com
Credit: chorleyweather.com
This air mass should be cold enough to support even low level snowfall over many parts of the UK and not just Scotland.
Here’s the GFS surface and note the low thicknesses as well as precip falling primarily as snow even to sea level.
Credit: Tropical Tidbits
Credit: Tropical Tidbits
Credit: Tropical Tidbits
Credit: Tropical Tidbits
Credit: Tropical Tidbits
Significant snow is likely over Highland Scotland with accumulation quite possible through the Central Belt of Scotland.
Credit: Tropical Tidbits
Expect nights to turn colder with severe frost possibly setting in Friday/Saturday nights!
The current low pressure spinning north of Scotland is helping push milder Atlantic air into Europe, helping weaken the brutal cold anchored from Moscow to Athens. It will be a slow process though!
Credit: BBC Weather
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