Brits face coldest night of winter as bitter -20C temperatures forecast amid snow and ice
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Brits could see temperatures drop to -20C tonight in the coldest night of winter so far as an Arctic blast continues to batter the country. Much of the UK has seen snow and major travel disruption this week while hundreds of schools have had to close due to the weather. Manchester Airport closed both its runways on Thursday morning “due to significant levels of snow” but they were later reopened. Transport for Wales closed some rail lines in the country due to track damage following a period of “heavy wind, rain and snow”.
Met Office weather warnings for ice are in place across the majority of Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as large parts of the east of England and some areas of western England, until 10am on Friday. There is also a warning for snow and ice in northern Scotland that runs until the same time tomorrow.
And the UK Health Security Agency has extended its cold weather health alert for all of England until Sunday. Amber alerts will now run until January 12, meaning a rise in deaths is likely, the agency said. Wednesday’s lowest overnight temperature was -12.4C in Inverness-shire, Scotland and that was with cloud cover, so forecasters believe that with a clear sky tonight it can drop a lot more in some areas.
BBC weather forecaster Chris Fawkes said: " Overnight we are looking at a really widespread frost, where most people live in towns and cities you probably won’t notice much change in the temperatures, -4C to -7C, but it is across snow covered valleys in Scotland we could see temperatures plummet down to somewhere between -18C and -20C. A sharp frost, icy conditions to start the day for Friday.".
