Wrap up warm and brave the icy touch of winter
WELCOME to meteorological winter, and appropriately enough it is getting noticeably colder, with frost and fog making their presence felt.
At last, the dominance of low pressure from the west has been broken by a nose of high pressure over most of the UK. That means drier, sunnier conditions, but also a strong northerly or easterly wind for those tempted outdoors. Wrap up warm.
The frost that greets much of northern England and Scotland this morning isn’t quite as widespread as yesterday’s. Southern parts of England especially will be spared thanks to low cloud left behind overnight after a rain front crept in late on Saturday to give the South West a drenching.
It may take some time for the morning mist to clear, but by afternoon most of us should enjoy the sort of bright Sunday afternoon that turns thoughts after lunch to a brisk walk under the weak winter sun.
The possible exceptions are along the eastern coast – anywhere from Aberdeen to East Anglia – where you may suffer the odd shower.
Plymouth is the warmest place, albeit only at 46F (8C), with Newcastle and Edinburgh down at just 39F (4C). And the mercury won’t get much higher at the start of the working week. As it progresses, though, there is a risk that the low pressure will be back – so milder but also wetter.
At a time when facts can seem in short supply, what we do know is that autumn 2019 may have been the wettest on record in a handful of places – notably Sheffield – but more generally across England and Wales, whatever impression we may have after one too many soakings, it ranks just 24th in the all-time table.