Britons are bracing for a roller coaster of temperatures, with sub-tropical warmth hitting the country over the next few days before temperatures plunge next week as low as -4C. On Tuesday, the UK experienced its warmest day of the year, with temperatures reaching 17 degrees Celsius in mid-Wales, with the warm weather set to continue this week. But that warm interlude will shift to freezing temperatures on Wednesday, as the Met Office issued a yellow warning for dense fog covering the east of the country until 9 am today.
The warning said: “Areas of dense fog are expected to cause some challenging travel conditions through Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.”
BBC weather forecaster Tomasz Schafernaker told the Mirror temperatures will remain “mild”, with high pressure “slipping away” to the east and giving way to “weather systems” off the Atlantic.
“So through Wednesday the weather front sweeps across the UK only very slowly but because the high pressure is still close by, this weather front is going to be basically dried out by the high pressure here and so very little rain reaching the Midlands and the southeast.”
Temperatures are unusually high for the time of year due to subtropical air affecting the south of the country, with colder air in Scotland.
Temperatures, though, will start falling on Friday, as gales of around 80mph will sweep across northern Scotland.
The Met Office has also warned a spell of strong winds is expected across Scotland that could bring disruption on Friday. There is a small chance of injuries and danger to life due to flying debris. The warning covers parts of northern England and the whole of Scotland.
Cold temperatures could set in this weekend. WX Charts forecast some Brits could have a white weekend with snow falling on Saturday. A snowstorm with an estimated width of 800 km will move across the country in the morning, bringing snow to Northern Ireland at around 6 am.
Next week is forecast to be colder with WXCharts maps showing temperatures dropping as low as -4C on February 23 in Scotland while the mercury hovers around 0C in the rest of the country.
READ MORE: UK weather maps show date 7ins of snow to fall and -6C freeze to hit
The Met Office warned a major sudden stratospheric warning (SSW) is “now likely to take place” in late February or early March.
A significant SSW brought the Beast from the East to the United Kingdom in 2018, resulting in 22 inches of snowfall in some areas and £1.2 billion in economic damage.
However, the Met Office insisted that an SSW does not always imply a weather situation similar to the Beast from the East.
The forecaster explained: “A major SSW often makes the jet stream meander more, which can lead to a large area of blocking high pressure over northern Europe, including the UK. This blocking high pressure can lead to cold, dry weather in the north of Europe, including the UK, with mild, wet and windy conditions more likely for southern areas of the continent.
“However, this is not always the case and impacts on UK weather can also be benign when an SSW occurs.”
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