Snow maps present 1,000km storm will hit all of UK with ’10cm per hour’ coming

A winter storm spanning your entire size of the UK – roughly 1,000km – is tracked to blast the nation with snow on someday subsequent month.

Weather forecasters have been hinting for a while that the white stuff might return in February, after hundreds of thousands of Brits noticed flurries earlier in January.

Exacta Weather’s James Madden beforehand mentioned “major snow and cold weather” is on the playing cards subsequent month, with a blocking sample probably intensifying circumstances.

READ MORE: Forecaster pinpoints when ‘polar vortex disruption’ might carry chilly climate chaos to UK

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The Met Office has additionally hinted at February snow, saying: “Later in the month there is an increasing likelihood of winds from the north or east, which will increase the chance of some colder spells and perhaps snow.”

Advanced climate modelling maps from WX Charts present Saturday, February 10, to be when circumstances will take a wintry flip. An enormous bout of snow, proven in purple, might be seen shifting throughout the nation from west to east within the morning, stretching for the far north of Scotland to the south coast of England.

Where flurries are most intense – particularly Wales and Scotland – WX Charts’ knowledge suggests snow could possibly be falling at a charge of round 10cm per hour (proven by areas of lighter purple inside darker purple on the maps).

Snow depth maps present simply how a lot can have come down and settled on the bottom by noon on February 10, with some snow seen in nearly each a part of the nation.

Predictably, accumulations shall be biggest within the north of Scotland the place as a lot as 26cm would possibly settle. People in northern England might see 10cm, Wales 3cm, the Midlands 4cm, and different areas between 1cm and 2cm. Only Northern Ireland and the south-west of England look to have none.

BBC Weather beforehand urged we might see polar vortex disruption carry chilly climate chaos subsequent month.

Recently we’ve seen sudden stratospheric warming (SSW), which happens when temperatures within the stratosphere improve and chilly air descends quickly within the polar vortex. This in flip could cause adjustments within the jet stream and tends to carry chilly snaps.

Changes within the jet stream may create what are referred to as areas of blocking strain, which preserve chilly circumstances in situ over the UK for extended durations. This course of is what led to the notorious ‘Beast from the East’ in 2018.

BBC Weather mentioned “the recent disturbance” within the polar vortex could begin to have an effect. The forecast learn: “This change to a colder pattern would be consistent with the impacts of certain global atmospheric drivers, including the recent disturbance of the stratospheric polar vortex. If that has any effect, which is not guaranteed, then this is the period during which we might see it.”

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