Enjoy this week’s mild weather while you can – before winter returns with a vengeance.
Parts of Britain face snow and temperatures as low as minus 11C at the back end of February, with wintry conditions forecast to stretch over ten days into March.
It is due to the anticipated return of a rare polar phenomenon – a ‘Sudden Stratospheric Warming’ (SSW) – that caused 2018’s ‘Beast from the East’, which also began in late February, causing chaos.
For now, the sun is out for a spring-like start to half-term week. Days will be mostly bright, reaching 13C in the south and 11C in the north, but there could be sub-zero temperatures at night.
Gusty winds and rain return from Friday in the north, pushing into the south after the weekend.
Following that, the UK is set for its third blast of freezing weather this winter.
A two-week freeze in December was followed by a sub-zero week in January.
A Met Office forecaster said: ‘During February 25 to March 11, a period of colder or much colder temperatures is a possibility.’
Netweather forecaster Nick Finnis said: ‘A SSW means there could be much colder and wintry weather before spring arrives.
‘They trigger colder conditions in the UK on average two out of every three times they occur.’
