Arctic Air To Bring Snow Showers To UK
After unseasonably warm weather for the start of November, the temperatures will finally drop in the coming days, bringing snow to some places.
The first half of this month has been the second warmest on record, mainly due to a mild westerly air flow that has also brought through a lot of wet weather as well as damaging storms like Abigail and Barney .
This time of the year, the UK mean temperature is around 6C (43F), but into the weekend some places could be lower than that, with northern Scotland possibly close to zero on Saturday.
The main reason why it will become colder is because the winds will come in from a northerly direction, dragging in chilly Arctic air, which in turn will also bring an increasing risk of any precipitation falling as snow.
The cold air will start to spread southwards on Friday, and any showers are likely to fall as snow over the high ground in the north and maybe even to lower levels later in the day.
By Saturday all areas will feel the cold, with sunny spells and a wintry mix of rain, hail, sleet and snow showers, mainly across northern areas, as well as western and eastern coastal counties.
A lot of places will struggle to see temperatures above 6C, which will be a big difference compared to last Saturday where Hereford saw temperatures up to 15C (59F).
The Met Office has issued a yellow ''be aware'' warning for Friday into Saturday for both snow and winds.
Wintry showers could spread to many northern areas into the weekend, with 1-4cm likely at some lower levels and 5-10cm on higher ground.
In addition to this, wind gusts of 50-60mph are likely to cause drifting of snow and perhaps blizzard conditions to the highest routes later on Friday - so travel disruption is possible.
Overnight temperatures are likely to drop below zero with a widespread frost and the risk of some icy patches where showers from the day will freeze over.
Although this will be the first widespread cold spell of the season, it is not actually unusual to see snow in late autumn.
In fact the most recent snow event was back in 2010 in late November, where snow accumulated across northern and eastern parts of the UK.
However, the start of next week will feel slightly milder, as the winds pick up more of a westerly component, but it will be rather unsettled again with several areas of low pressure spreading in.
