As expected here since the weekend, radar is showing SNOW showers blowing through Greater London and the Southeast this morning producing a light covering for some.

London this morning.

Here was Wiltshire this morning.

These strong northeast winds tend to be colder at this time of the year as North Sea waters are colder and it’s as this flow blows across the water, moisture get’s picked up and driven inland in the form of snow showers. I think you’ll agree that this was a pretty good call as I had many dismiss this idea and there wasn’t a whole lot of model support. I knew it wouldn’t be a big event like we got back in Feb 2009 but certainly the setup was right.

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Further north and under clear skies, temps fell to -9.1C at both Katesbridge, Co Down and Shap, Cumbria. This was the coldest readings of winter for both Northern Ireland and England. In the Highlands where some spots have some 32cm of snow on the ground, the thermometer hit -11C at Dalwhinnie.

Another cold night to come tonight. Probably the last really cold night (sub double digits below freezing) of the current spell.

Models are in good agreement that the blocking Atlantic high that’s kept are cold north winds blowing, will build in through the weekend bringing an easing of the cold initially over Northern Ireland and Scotland and eventually all of the UK.

Latest GFS surface maps remain the same, the high will continue building and strenghening across the Northern UK keeping the nagging easterly flow going across England. More snow showers are likely but as we head for late week, temps rise and rain begins to return across parts of Scotland.

Through the weekend, the ridge core establishes directly over the UK. Because the source of this high is Atlantic, days will warm up but given that it’s still winter and snow remains deep in many parts, overnight temps will continue top dip well into sub freezing territory.

5-day mean 500mb height anomalies

Day 0-5

5-10

As for the 2m temps/anomalies… a cold 0-5 day but notice the coldest is in the west where winds are lightest/night’s coldest!

Even though the ridge builds overhead day 5-10, notice we’ve still below normal temps, probably as a result of cold nights under clear skies.

So, as of now, it looks dry and quiet through much of next week with milder days (than of late) but still a risk of frost and fog by night. Fog is likely to become an issue next week in sheltered areas as Atlantic sourced highs are moister and under stable conditions, fog forms easily.

See video for today’s discussion.

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