Britain is set to be hit by a 363-mile wall of snow stretching from Glasgow to Southampton, as wintry weather throughout January looks set to continue. According to weather data from WXCharts.com, the huge weather front is set to sweep in from the Atlantic Ocean on January 27, hitting Wales and the South West before making its way inland.
By January 29, the weather front will stretch from Glasgow to the South Coast, with snow as deep as 63cm in parts of Scotland. Snow will be heaviest in Scotland, with Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh all seeing in excess of 25cm of snow, according to the latest maps. Further south, Wales will see significant disruption, with 10cm falling in some parts, while major English cities such as Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham and London will all be impacted.
The snow will be accompanied by temperatures as low as -6C, with the majority of Britain waking on the morning of January 29 to sub-zero conditions.
A Met Office long-range forecast for January 23 to February 1 supports the possibility of snow and low temperatures hitting Britain.
It said: “Temperatures are likely to be around or a little above average, except in the far North-eas,t where it is likely to be colder with some sleet or snow.
“There is then an increased chance that conditions will turn more widely colder and drier.
“This aspect of the forecast is still somewhat uncertain but the potential transition to colder weather also increases the chance of snow across parts of the country.”
The agency warns that temperatures will turn colder from the weekend as a battle between Atlantic weather systems attempting to push in wet and windy weather from the west, while high pressure and colder, drier conditions attempt to exert some influence from the east takes place.
Met Office Deputy Chief Forecaster Steven Keates said: “While it does look increasingly likely that conditions will turn more widely colder into next week, the timing and extent of this colder air remains uncertain.
“There are variations between the different weather models, and although a few show very low temperature values, this is currently the minority.
“The majority indicate below-average temperatures from the east, but nothing too extreme at the moment.”
The Met Office often warns that predicting snow more than a few days in advance is difficult.
It said: “In many temperate countries such as the UK, a small amount of snow can cause all sorts of disruption.
“But it can also be very challenging to predict. There are lots of factors involved in determining whether rain or snow will be falling from the sky, such as elevation, distance from the coast and precipitation intensity”.