Many of you will have noticed the marked drop in temperature over the last 24 hours. The UK is indeed now within a cooler Polar air mass. If this had been mid Winter – it would have been very cold with some heavy snow. However, as we’re now approaching April, temperatures are lifting and the risk of snow from this is much reduced. Having said that, it will still be fairly chilly at times over the next few days with some moderate overnight frosts.
There will also be a few light and scattered showers around in the east overnight. Some of these could be wintry above 250 metres of elevation. The risk for most of us is low – especially further South West. Even where they do fall, they are likely to be light and patchy and are not expected to cause any real issues. The risk is highest across the Pennines where a scattered dusting of snow is possible in places here overnight.
The following map, a precipitation forecast by the HIRLAM model, shows that a few flakes are possible (pink colours) over the Pennines tonight
To lower levels below around 300m, these scattered showers will mostly fall as a sleety mix of rain, hail and sleet. As mentioned, it is above 300 metres where these showers could produce some light snow flakes. A few fleeting flakes can’t be ruled out across some more lower level eastern areas tomorrow. A relatively cold day tomorrow, with a mixture of sunshine and scattered cloud elsewhere.
It will also be a cold night for the time of year. The following map shows temperatures of between -2C and +2C for most areas overnight, meaning a few icy patches could develop, especially considering how much rain and standing water is still around from recent flooding / heavy rain.
