BRITS have today been warned to brace for periods of heavy rain and wind before they can enjoy a sunny weekend.
Spates of heavy rain and strong winds will lash northern Scotland and the northern Isles, with highs of 10C.
Most of the UK will be dry, with strong winds expected in Northern Scotland
Periods of heavy rain will also hit Scotland
Flood warnings are in place across the UK
A dryer day projected further south, where isolated fog and biting frost will “clear to leave an increasingly cloudy and breezy, but mostly a dry day.”
Mild conditions expected in the North.
The Met Office also warns of “strong winds” to the lee of high ground in the north.
It continues: “Light rain and drizzle pushes northeast across Scotland. Many other areas dry with variable cloud. Mostly frost free.”
Happily the weekend will brighten up, with Saturday offerings of variable clouds but sunny spells shining through.
Similarly, Sunday will be “mostly dry, with some sunny spells” after a “breezy and damp at times” start in the far Northwest.
Elsewhere, eight flood alerts have been issued spanning across the UK.
The alerts are in place for swathes of Hampshire as well as East and West Sussex, where groundwater floods have been prolonged.
With a relatively dry February forecasted, many of those warnings are likely to wane as the days and weeks progress.
A Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) will likely take place as March looms, but is unlikely to replicate the severity of the Beast from the East in 2018.
An SSW refers to a sudden warming up in the stratosphere, the area found between six and 30 miles above the earth’s surface.
The phenomenon resulted in 22 inches of snowfall in parts, with a devastating £1.2 billion hit to the UK economy.
In a recent blog post, The Met Office said:
“In the meantime, it is important to remember that the occurrence of an SSW does not always equate to a ‘Beast from the East’ type scenario even though this happened in 2018.
“For example, in 2019, there was an SSW but little impact on the weather for the UK and NW Europe.
“The current extended range forecast for mid-February suggests that the most likely scenario is for broadly changeable weather with westerly conditions and influxes of wind and rain at times, particularly in the northwest.
“Temperatures are likely to be around average through mid-February. We will be updating forecasts with a close view on late February and early March as the SSW unfolds.”
