How long is the UK’s freezing cold snap going to last?

The UK feels more like Finland right now, but the Big Freeze will start to thaw from this weekend,

Before this, however, an explosive end to the cold snap is in store, when Storm Goretti hits on Thursday evening with blizzards, strong wind, freezing rain, and even more dumps of heavy snow.

Last night was the coldest of winter so far, with temperatures dropping below freezing throughout the UK. The coldest temperature recored, -12.5°C, was in Marham in Norfolk.

Scotland has seen such extreme weather there are calls for the Army to be sent in.

Jim Dale, the founder of British Weather Services, said he doesn’t think such low temperatures will be repeated again tonight: ‘We’re getting cloud coming in from the west, which is starting to slightly lift temperatures, and with it bringing snow falling.

‘What you need for a cold night is the polar air, clear nights so you’ve got maximum radiation from the Earth’s surface, and no wind, and hey presto, that’s exactly what we had which is why temperatures fell so far.

‘I’m not sure we, as in the UK as a whole, will see those sorts of temperature again in the short to medium term. The only places that will are in Scotland, in the Glens like Turroch Bridge and Altnaharra.’

Things are not expected to turn unseasonably warm even after the weekend, but the critically low temperatures we have been seeing will become more moderate.

Parts of the country, including the South and South West, could even see 10°C days during the next week, though this is not likely to be sustained.

‘We’re not going to be too far from cold days, even after this,’ Mr Dale added.

‘But this could be the peak of it, or should I say the trough.

‘It won’t be warm or anything of that nature, but we’re going to edge out way out of it in England and Wales, less so in Scotland.’

For January as a whole, he predicts a ‘to and fro’ been cold and relatively milder weather, as the cold Arctic air jostles with the Atlantic air for prominence.

Met Office weather warnings will be in place until lunchtime on Friday, with snow, ice, and strong winds expected.

On Wednesday, nearly the entire UK is covered by a yellow warning for ice.

The drop in temperatures has triggered cold weather payments for hundreds of thousands of households, designed to help elderly and vulnerable people with heating costs, the Government said.

Eligible households automatically receive £25 when temperatures are recorded or forecast to be zero degrees or below over seven consecutive days.

Payments will support households in 451 postcode areas in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, including Penrith, in Cumbria, the Yorkshire Dales, Norwich, in Norfolk, Milton Keynes, in Buckinghamshire, and Crawley, in West Sussex.

Cold weather payments have been triggered on five separate days, December 30, January 1, January 2, January 3 and January 6, and have been triggered twice for households in parts of Cumbria and Northumberland, which stand to receive a £50 payout.

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