Snow, ice and floods to hit Britain this week

PA

A band of rain has moved south across the UK and, once that clears, Met Office forecasters expect temperatures to drop dramatically.

An Arctic blast from Iceland will bring snow, ice, flooding and bitter gales to Britain this week, with heavy rain likely, especially in the west.

The Daily Express reports that forecasters have warned mercury will plummet to near freezing in many areas, including the Scottish Highlands and parts of northern England, with daytime temperatures 15C lower than this time last year.

Meanwhile the entire country faces cold conditions and possible frosts. The bitter weather is likely to remain for the next few weeks and significant snow will arrive by the middle of the month, forecasters say.

Forecaster for Vantage Weather Services Jonathan Powell told the Express: 'We could well see some bitter cold temperatures.

'We are looking at a cold pool of air sweeping in from the north sending temperatures plunging.'

Leon Brown, meteorologist of The Weather Channel, told AOL Travel that the weather for the end of this week depends on what Hurricane Nadine does.

'The storm strengthened to a Hurricane again over the weekend and is currently 500 miles west-southwest of the Azores. It will eventually move northeast and may cross the Azores on Thursday, but after that latest indications suggest it will swing back westwards and not approach Europe, although this is still very much in the balance.

'If so, this means we can expect a cool, windy and unsettled week with showers and bands of rain crossing from the west followed by dry weather for the coming weekend with ground frosts, but quite sunny by day with lighter winds.'

Leon added: 'Early next week we may see the influence of the remains of Nadine with wet weather over Ireland for a while, but dry over England and Wales. With southerly winds developing temperatures also becoming a lot warmer.'

The country is currently recovering from last week's torrential downpours and floods that caused rivers to burst banks and forced hundreds of families from their homes.

According to the Express, temperatures will struggle to get into double figures in many areas this week and brisk winds will make it feel much colder. Mercury is likely to get as low as 2C in the north, while the south will see a slightly higher temperature of 4C.

This time last year, Britain basked in 29.9C heat and saw record temperatures for the end of September.

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