Sunny But Cold Today, Cloudy and Wet Sunday

The first cold snap of the season has arrived from the north, with wintry showers bringing settling snow to some parts of eastern Britain overnight. And this year, the arrival of cold and snow has been exceptionally early too. Although we only have to go back to October 2008 for a similar early taste of winter, when that year the cold and snow arrived on the 28th and was considered the coldest and snowiest since 1880. This year the cold arrived a few days earlier, so we could be looking at a record breaking early cold snap.

After a cold, frosty but bright start across much of Britain, most areas will enjoy a dry and sunny but cold day. However, wintry showers will continue to blow in on the strong northerly wind across eastern coastal counties. Showers will be heavy, with hail, sleet and even some snow mixed in at first, though tending fall mostly as rain or hail as the day wears on. Also, it will tend to cloud over from the northwest across Scotland and Northern Ireland through the day, with rain moving in this afternoon and evening, preceded by hill snow. A cold day everywhere for late October, reaching 8-9C at best across England and Wales, 5-8C across Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Tonight, cloud and rain will continue to spread southeast across much of northern Britain, reaching Wales and The Midlands in the early hours. Southern England will stay dry and mostly clear with another frost developing. Then Sunday will be a much different day to today, largely cloudy and windy across many areas, with rain at times, the rain occasionally heavy the west. It will still be rather chilly across many areas, though turning slightly milder in the west.

Then next week will continue generally unsettled. Cloud and rain will slowly clear to brighter conditions on Monday. Cloud and rain in the north on Tuesday, mostly dry and bright in the south. A spell of wet and windy weather looks likely for all areas on Wednesday. Then further rain or showers likely until the end of the week.

Published on 27th October 2012 10:56 Updated: 27th October 2012 10:56