Signs of the expected cold weather have arrived over the weekend, with daytime maximums only reaching 5°C at best across the region so far. The forecast for the rest of the week is still uncertain, but there are good indications for the weather to turn much colder...
We are sat underneath a large area of High pressure. Temporarily, the winds will turn northerly during Monday, bringing, unusually, some slightly milder air. The change in wind direction means that the frequent showers we experienced over the weekend will no longer occur, because the air is coming from over the U.K. as opposed from over the moist, mild waters of the North Sea.
On Monday night we will import much colder air from the continent and this sets us up for a bitterly cold spell for the rest of the night. Clear skies will lead to a hard frost on Monday night. Since the night hours are much longer than daytime hours, we loose a lot more heat during the night hours than we do during the day in the winter months. As a result, each day this week will become progressively colder.
On Tuesday we are expecting maximum temperatures to reach 5°C; by Thursday we are expecting just 3°C as a maximum, and most places are likely to stay at or below 0°C by Friday.
Areas of Low pressure are expected to develop over the North Sea, creating showers once again which may affect our region at times, especially on Wednesday and Thursday. Due to the very cold airmass, any precipitation that falls will be wintry in nature, turning increasingly to sleet and snow as the week wears on. Thus, accumulations seem quite possible, especially on high ground, at some stage this week.
We are still expecting this cold spell to end around 22nd/23rd December (as has been mentioned in our Christmas Day forecast since 10th December). This means that the festive period is likely to see a return to milder, Alantic-dominated weather, and hence the chances of a White Christmas are currently quite low for our region.
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