The Met Office has revealed a host of weather patterns set to batter the nation in the coming weeks as winter takes aim at Britain.
The Met Office has warned Brits of a transition to “changeable” weather conditions ranging from storm chaos to snow for some regions. The forecaster detailed its latest outlook for the country in its long-range forecast for the rest of January.
Weather maps currently show stronger winds coming in off the Atlantic next week, from around Wednesday (January 22), sparking the start of an unsettled period lasting days. Experts at the Met say this change in the mercury is down to a mix of Arctic cold air, and tropical warm air as a major cold period strikes North America. Combined, as it tracks eastwards, it strengthens the jet stream, creating more unsettled stormy weather for Brits.
In its long-range forecast from January 22 to January 31, it says: “A transition to a rather more changeable and at times unsettled weather pattern is likely to occur during the first few days of this period. Outbreaks of rain and freshening winds will probably make inroads from the southwest during Thursday ahead of conditions more widely becoming wetter and windier by next weekend.”
Nick Finnis, from independent forecaster Netweather, predicted next week’s chaos could result in one or two named storms. He said in his blog: “We could be entering a stormy period, perhaps with one or two named-storms bringing a risk of gales or severe gales along with a return of heavy rain increasing the risk of flooding. There could be cold polar maritime air following in wake of these low pressure systems, which could bring an increased risk of temporary snow over hills in the north.”
While this widespread wet and windy outlook looks set to batter the south-west, there’s a risk of a European freeze impacting northern Britain at the same time. The Met Office’s long-range forecast continued: “Whilst a milder, wetter and windier scenario is considered most likely, there remains a small chance that colder air from Europe may continue to feed into northern Britain, especially at first, increasing the chance of snowfall here.”
As the end of the month draws in, milder conditions are expected. “Towards the end of January, further periods of strong winds and heavy rain are likely to move in from the Atlantic. Whilst generally mild conditions look to close out the month, some large day to day changes in temperature are possible,” it added.
