Yellow weather warning issued as Met Office forecast return of snow

The record for the highest maximum temperature on a January day has just been broken after a provisional record was measured in northern Scotland.

The Met Office said they had recorded a 19.6C temperature on Sunday in Kinlochewe, a village in the northwest Highlands about an hour’s drive from Inverness.

In a post on X, the Met Office said: “There has provisionally been a new UK January daily max temperature record set today at Kinlochewe where the temperature reached 19.6C.

Weather experts have warned that the UK is likely facing its stormiest winter on record as the country has already faced ten named storms with over half of the season still to go.

The storm season begins each year in September and there are usually around six or seven storms in that year.

Since storm naming was introduced in 2015 the furthest through the list the group has got is to number 11, Storm Katie, which impacted the UK in March 2016.

Weather experts have warned that the UK is likely facing its stormiest winter on record as the country has already faced ten named storms with over half of the season still to go.

The storm season begins each year in September and there are usually around six or seven storms in that year.

Since storm naming was introduced in 2015 the furthest through the list the group has got is to number 11, Storm Katie, which impacted the UK in March 2016.

This year’s storm naming season is now just one name away from matching 2015/16’s number of named storms, with over seven months still to go until the list is reset again.

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Good morning and welcome to our live weather updates. For those just joining us, here’s a look at the weekend forecast below:

Staying mostly cloudy and mild in the south with patchy rain mostly in the west. Brighter with sunny spells elsewhere with showers across western Scotland. Windy in the north.

Generally mild and rather cloudy into the start of the new week. Rain at times, especially in the north and west, and often windy. Turning colder from the north Tuesday.

Following a relatively mild end to January, experts have warned that snow will return to the UK next week as temperatures plummet to -8C in some areas.

Jim Dale, Senior Meteorological Consultant at British Weather Services told The Independent: “We haven’t got to the end of winter yet and next week will be colder. There will be snow in Scotland and the north and potentially in the south.”

According to WXCharts, an interactive weather map provider using Met Office data, the UK will be coldest on 10 February, with certain areas of Scotland and Wales seeing minimum temperatures dropping to -8C.

The maps predict widespread snow cover with 2cm of snow falling per hour at its peak.

In its long-range forecast, the Met Office has also said there will be some hill snow over the weekend and that “there is a chance colder conditions could start to feature” in the second week of February.

January 2024 turned out to be near average in terms of temperature and rainfall for the UK, but it was a month of contrasts.

While there were long cold snaps, storms and heavy rain, the UK also recorded its highest January temperature.

The country had its sixth sunniest January on record, offering a welcome contrast to the previous month.

Storms, temperature extremes, and varied precipitation marked January’s weather, showing how abrupt the UK weather can be.

“Of course, contrasting winter weather in the UK isn’t a new phenomenon,” Met Office senior scientist Mike Kendon said. “What this January clearly demonstrates is just how abrupt these changes in weather type can be.”

The UK is expecting a gloomy and cold first weekend of February as temperatures plummet.

Here’s the Met Office’s weather forecast for the weekend:

As the UK heads into a gloomy weekend, here’s the weather forecast for Friday night according to the Met Office:

Mild and generally cloudy in the south with patchy rain and drizzle in the west. Clearer and feeling fresher in the north with showers across western Scotland. Staying windy in the north, with gales in places.

Parts of the UK have been told to expect up to 170mm of rain over the weekened, as the Met Office issues a yellow weather warning for Sunday.

Deputy Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office, David Hayter said: “There’s likely to be some persistent rain for northern Scotland – perhaps wintry at times for Shetland – on Sunday. The rain will slowly push north through Sunday, before pivoting and then returning south later on Monday.

He added: Some southern parts of the warning area may see a drier interlude for a time on Monday and there is some uncertainly as to how far north the rain gets.

“40-75 mm of rain may fall quite widely in the warning areas, but there is potential for 120-170 mm in the wettest areas, this perhaps most likely in parts of Argyll, Lochaber and Wester Ross.”