Snowfall has been relentlessly sweeping west from far eastern Asia to Northern Europe over the past 4 weeks and it’s knocking on the door of the UK as we head towards the weekend. We now have a hemispheric snow cover equivalent to early January rather than early November as you can see below.

Snowfall is well above normal!

We’ve just witnessed the 3rd greatest October snowfall for the hemisphere since 1967.

With most of Russia and all of Siberia now covered, we probably have the greatest end of October snow cover since 1998.

Below animation for Oct 31 snow cover appears to show an increase since 2013.

The steep snow cover growth is coming at a price!

Up to 10 feet of snow fell in parts of Siberia within just 3 days crippling isolated communities.

3 metre snow dump is the worst for the Yakutia region of Siberia in 30 years!

As snow cover expands, so the cold strengthens and the faster and greater coverage of Siberia snow, the stronger and colder the Siberia high becomes.

An early taste of Siberia for the UK this weekend?

As for us here on the fringes of Western Europe, well we get a taste of Atlantic and Arctic over the coming days as low pressure sinks south out of Iceland bringing wet, windy and chilly conditions. Once the circulation drifts into the North Sea we begin to turn colder as winds blow off an increasingly cold and snowy Scandinavia with our air even having origin extending back to Russia.

So, wet and windy today and Friday but blustery and colder still through the weekend with showers or sleet and snow showers blowing in from Norway where heavy snowfall is expected to be followed by temperatures well into the -20s C.

Today’s surface.

By Saturday the low currently over us now will be centred near Denmark and drawing on the cold over Russia and bringing major snow to southern Norway and Sweden. The UK will be under the cold, showery, windy ENE stream.

The low will continue to bring heavy snow to southern Norway and Sweden but showers may turn to snow even to low levels of the UK during Sunday.

By Monday the GFS takes the low into NW Germany/Netherlands as high pressure topples into the NE UK and this is the setup for winds blowing all the way from Russia to UK.

The strongest winds pull away from the bulk of the UK during Monday leaving cold and clear sky behind.

Coldest nights to arrive early next week as ENE winds slacken and we’re left beneath the clear, crisp skies and dense cold air above.

Then in comes the next Atlantic front by mid next week.

Check this out…

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Creative Boom

See this morning’s video.

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