Map shows where temperatures could drop as low as -3°C in the UK

Temperatures could drop to 0°C or even lower on Thursday morning ahead of a ‘cold snap’ this weekend.

So far this week has been relatively sunny and warm for winter, after the fifth warmest Januaries on record.

But ‘there’s a good chance the UK will experience a dip in temperatures’ in the coming days, Frank Saunders, the Met Office Chief Meteorologist, said.

A high-pressure system will deliver ‘sunny days and frosty nights’, according to the weather forecaster’s latest predictions.

Temperatures could drop as low as -2°C in towns and cities of northern England and the Midlands on Thursday morning, ‘and a few degrees below that in some of the most sheltered spots’, meteorologist Aidan McGivern said.

Meanwhile, the rest of the UK will be slightly warmer. The far north of Scotland will be around 5°C and further south will be as high as 3°C, the Met Office predicts.

The high pressure and clear skies bringing us sunny days will, however, lead to ‘widespread frost [and] some fog patches first thing’.

McGivern said: ‘Then it’s just a crisp, bright winter’s day, some patchy cloud into the southeast and that brisk breeze continuing in the northwest of Scotland.

‘But otherwise, for the vast majority, it’s sunny skies, light winds, feeling very pleasant indeed – seven or eight degrees.

‘Later Thursday, we’ll see a bit more cloud arriving into the south and across central parts. That’s a sign of another change going into Friday and the weekend.’

As the high-pressure system moves east towards Scandinavia, it will bring ‘colder easterly winds’.

But they won’t be ‘drastically cold’, McGivern said.

‘They’re going to bring a mix of patchy rain and sleet across central and southern parts of the UK. The brightest skies will remain towards the northwest,

‘It will feel cold in the wind, of course, but temperatures not much lower than 3°C to 5°C by day through the weekend, with a lot of cloud cover.’

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