Second blast of autumn snow for the UK by Steph Ball
A plunge of cold Arctic air over the last few days has brought a second blast of snow across many parts of the UK.
The cold air began arriving across the north on Friday, with snow showers affecting many northern and eastern parts of Scotland. As the freezing conditions spread further south during Saturday, snow showers began to pummel the coastal strip of eastern England as far south as East Anglia. Meanwhile cold northerly winds brought a significant wind-chill for many.
The real winter blast arrived overnight and early this morning though with an Atlantic weather front pushing in from the west and bumping up against the cold air. It prompted the Met Office to issue warnings of snow and black ice for much of eastern Scotland and England (bar the southwest of England).
There have been reports of lying snow in many areas, with as much as 14cm (5.5 inches) recorded in Aberdeen city centre. In some parts freezing rain has also been reported, for example through the Midlands. Freezing rain is when super-cooled rain droplets freeze on contact with cold surfaces. It forms a transparent layer of ice which is not always easily detectable to the eye and so can be very treacherous.
So with winter just knocking on the door what do we have in store? The Met Office’s winter forecast advises that winter 2008/ 2009 will be milder than average. However this isn’t to say that we won’t see further snaps of cold and snowy weather.
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