UK shivers in -18C weather and faces weekend snow - but temperatures as high as 13C to follow
15 December 2022, 20:29 | Updated: 16 December 2022, 00:37
Temperatures plummeted to as low as -18C in parts of the UK on Thursday night, although the end of the cold period that's caused travel chaos throughout Britain is finally in sight.
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The Met Office said that the "extreme" cold was in Braemar in Scotland, which has already seen -17.3C in recent days.
The rest of the UK will not fare much better, with temperatures between -14C to -8C on Thursday night.
Snow, ice and bitterly cold winds have swept across the UK all week - but an end to the cold snap could be in sight.
A band of rain and milder air which will bring this freezing spell to a stop has been forecast at the start of next week.
The weekend will still be rough - snow and ice has been forecast for the country, with yellow weather warnings in place for most of the Midlands, northern England, Scotland and Wales from 3am - 9pm on Sunday - with the potential for up to 15cm of snow in northern Scotland and 8cm in Wales.
A separate warning for snow and ice the south of England will last from 3am until 11am.
But Sunday will also see rain followed by mild air roll in, bringing temperatures as high as 10C in the West, with temperatures across the UK getting up to 13C on Monday.
"Once that rain band arrives, it will be getting warmer," Met Office meteorologist Ellie Wilson said, adding: "For the time being, yes, it does look like it's the end of the cold conditions we've been seeing recently."
She warned: "A band of rain and snow is going to be moving north-eastwards across the country through Sunday. It's bringing milder air behind it, but that milder air bumps into the cold air that's where we're seeing where the snow is likely to fall."
But she added: "That snow will quickly be followed by rain so any of those accumulations shouldn't last too long."
Temperatures will drop closer to average for the time of year, getting close to single digits but not as cold as this week.
The cold spell has caused travel disruption, with motorways becoming the scene of numerous car crashes and airports temporarily disrupted by heavy snowfall and bad weather.
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Snow has stuck to the ground for days after it fell earlier in the week.
And parts of Britain have been cut off from power. Some 2,400 properties on Shetland remain without energy, with SSEN engineers racing to try and restore it there.
