The Beast is back ( ...but it’s not quite ( so nasty this time
TWO weeks after Britain’s worst snowstorms for more than 25 years, you might have been lulled into thinking that spring had sprung.
But a ‘mini Beast from the East’ is poised to hit the UK this weekend, bringing up to 8in of snow and bitter winds from Siberia.
Temperatures will tumble as conditions take a turn for the worse later today and the freeze will last through Sunday.
The Met Office said: ‘It’s a strong cold front pushing south-west across the country Friday to Saturday with a dry polar-continental air mass coming in from Scandinavia.’
Scotland and the North East will be hit first, with temperatures falling to -3C (27F) tonight, before the front rolls across the rest of Britain.
Meteorologist Martin Bowles said: ‘ On Saturday that snow band in the East starts to move further south – including affecting the South East and London. It will weaken as it does so. On Sunday we get that snow spreading more widely, particularly further west and into the South of England – Devon, Kent, the Midlands and parts of Wales.’
Temperatures may plummet to -6C (21F) and there could be transport chaos as 2in of snow gathers in some parts and up to 8in on higher ground, he added. But those fearing a return of the blizzard conditions that paralysed roads at the beginning of the month need not panic – conditions are ‘extremely unlikely’ to get as fierce as a fortnight ago, when some areas had 19in of snow, 20ft drifts left villages cut off for a week, thousands of schools closed and hundreds of flights were cancelled.
‘We don’t expect it to be Beast from the East Mark II, you could call it a mini Beast from the East I suppose as it is a less severe version of it,’ Mr Bowles said.
‘We don’t expect anything like the same impact as a result of it, although there will be some snow about.’
The Met Office warnings for snow and ice begin at 3pm today for central Scotland and the North East, expanding to cover more of England tomorrow. The weekend will see very cold temperatures for the time of year across the whole of the UK, Mr Bowles said, with ice a potential danger in many areas.
‘By Sunday we expect the maximum temperatures to be only 1C (34F) and some parts will stay below freezing all day... it is probably the coldest day of the lot,’ he said. But the cold snap will be short lived, with temperatures rising ‘fairly rapidly’ from Tuesday, he added.