London snow to melt as temperatures soar in the week before Christmas - but icy weather to remain this week
14 December 2022, 23:46
The snow that has transformed London into a winter wonderland will soon melt as temperatures soar to unseasonably warm levels next week, forecasters have said.
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Temperatures are set to rise to 13C from Monday, the Met Office said, meaning the snow and ice are likely to disappear quickly.
The news will be a comfort to many who have been struggling in the cold weather since the weekend and are reluctant to use their heating amid sky-high energy prices.
Commuters and air passengers who have been left frustrated by cancellations and delays may also welcome the thawing of snow and ice.
But the end of the cold snap will disappoint others who have delighted in the blanket of snow that has covered the capital and much of the rest of the UK since Sunday night.
Paul Gundersen, chief forecaster for the Met Office, said: "Over the last week, the UK has been held in a northerly airflow bringing cold, sometimes Arctic air, to the UK.
“We will still have this northerly influence to our weather patterns until the weekend, but then the cold conditions will lose exclusive dominance over the UK’s weather patterns and we will move into a regime where relatively mild and relatively cold conditions will vie for supremacy.
"We can expect changeable conditions with colder and milder air not too far away from our shores, but it does seem that the Atlantic ‘has woken up’ compared with recent days and will be a stronger influence, countering any further bouts of extreme cold conditions, although spells of further wintry weather remain possible through the rest of December.”
But things could get colder for much of the UK before the temperature rises again, with the Met Office issuing a combined snow and ice warning for north-east England and the east coast of Scotland and the Highlands.
An ice warning is in place across coastal areas of Norfolk, Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire until 12pm on Thursday.
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Brisk winds in the next few days will also make temperatures feel 5C colder than they really are.
Met Office spokesperson Nicola Maxey added: “The weather will stay cold this week with daytime temperatures not getting much above freezing for many and a continued fog and ice risk.
“The cold weather will last into next weekend but there are indications that we will see temperatures rising as we go into next week with a return to milder weather from then.”
Heavy snow falls across London during night
It comes as thousands of people in the Shetland Isles off the north coast of Scotland are still without power amid heavy snow and ice, with authorities warning the outages could last until the weekend.
Some 2,800 homes were left without power when snow and ice brought down electricity lines earlier this week, prompting the Scottish Government to declare a major incident.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) is still working to reconnect power and extra crews of engineers arrived by ferry on Shetland earlier on Wednesday to help, with 125 now working on the problem.
cotland's Justice Secretary Keith Brown praised the "resilient community" for their "extraordinary response" to the crisis.
