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21st Jan 2019

Met Office warns of plummeting temperatures and ‘thundersnow’ risk

Marc Mayo

Expect temperatures to drop well below freezing on Tuesday and Wednesday morning

A Yellow warning has been issued by the Met Office for parts of the UK expected to be hit with ice and snow this week as temperatures across the country plummet.

Tuesday morning is expected to see the mercury drop as low as -5°C in some parts of southern England, before barely creeping up at all to 4°C during the daytime.

Any reprieve won’t be felt until Thursday, when a slight recovery will push temperatures back towards 7°C across London and northern England, which is more regular for this time of year.

However, the Met Office currently predicts that the weekend looks to be a cold one for many.

Snow is primarily expected for higher ground in the Welsh mountains and Yorkshire Pennines at the start of the week, with the risk of flurries across western parts of the UK growing on Tuesday.

This means western Scotland, Northern Ireland, north-west England, Wales and the south-west are the prime locations to witness the spectacular ‘thundersnow’.

Very much as you would expect, this is when thunderstorms coincide with snow rather than rain, and the Met Office has labelled the chances of this happening at around 15-20% in snowy areas.