UK faces 'week in freezer' with -1C snow beginning within days

The UK has been warned to brace for a "week in the freezer" as temperatures plunge nationwide amid a freezing cold snap before Christmas. The UK has been warned a downturn in conditions will bring with it a -1C cold snap.

The latest Met Office temperature maps predict that the mercury will dip from next week, reaching -1C by November 20. Jim Dale, the chief forecaster at British Weather Services, said the incoming cold spell will feel like a "week in the freezer".

He said: "The board is set, the pieces are moving! This one is looking like a full week in the freezer before it relents. The weather models will ebb and flow but the latest is spelling a very deep snow time (several inches) for the Midlands and Pennine towns and villages.

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"Scottish hills and mountains go without saying. Traffic dislocation and dangers appear inevitable. But it all means nothing for how Christmas may turn out." James Madden, from Exacta Weather, has also issued an update.

He explained: "From this upcoming weekend will see the first snow showers of the upcoming transition to some much colder weather starting to fall across parts of the north to begin with as an initially quite cold northerly for November begins to establish some expected and quite stark changes for most and if not all parts of the country during this period, as I will explain."

Mr Madden went on, adding: "The developing snow showers throughout this weekend will initially be more notable across higher ground and sporadically to some lower levels at times in parts of Scotland, northern England, and Northern Ireland, and then later across some large parts of Wales and potentially to some parts of southwest England."

In the short-term, the Met Office outlook for this week reads: "Patchy fog and drizzle. Brightening up in places. Relatively mild."