Brits were left chilled to the bone after a cold snap caused overnight temperatures to plummet to the lowest forecasters have seen this winter so far.
The latest Arctic blast has left much of the UK covered in snow and ice, with pileups prompting mass cancellations at delays at major airports last week. Dozens of schools were closed across the country, more than 50 of which were in the Scottish Highlands, with other closures scattered across Aberdeenshire, Moray, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides.
While some of the snow has let up in recent days, temperatures remain bitterly cold, in the low single figures and below in typically chilly areas. The Met Office has now confirmed that the mercury dipped to is lowest of the year so far in a sleepy Scottish hamlet, where lows teetered near -20.
Weather maps show 10 UK cities set to be battered by more snow this month
The extreme cold caused chaos across the UK last week
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Image:
Merseyside Police / SWNS)
The agency recorded a vicious -18C ice blast in Altnaharra, in the Highlands, at around 10pm on Friday, marking the coldest January night in more than a decade. The national forecaster said the temperatures were the lowest since 2010, when the mercury dipped below -15C across the country, reaching even frostier lows of -22.3C in typically freezing Altnaharra.
The forecasters said that, while the mercury was not expected to fall much lower overnight, they could reach -19C. Village residents have already shouldered some of the coldest temperatures in the UK this year, with similar -14.5C lows recorded on Thursday night. The chill is several orders of magnitude colder than the rest of Scotland, where the mercury averages out at around 0.3C in early January.
Temperatures started rising across the country again on Friday
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Image:
PA)
The Met Office warned on Thursday that “bitterly cold nights” were on the cards for most of the UK, not just Scotland, with “wintry hazards” developing as England, Wales and Northern Ireland also saw their coldest days of the year so far. Temperatures in each home nation reached -11.2C, -7.9C and -7.3C respectively last week.
The UK started warming up after milder air started filtering in from the southwest on Friday, however, with the “impactful cold spell” coming to an end for much of the country. Chief Meteorologist Paul Gundersen said: “Milder air will attempt to move into the UK from the southwest on Friday morning, heralding the end of this impactful cold spell.
“Increasing cloud and light rain, perhaps preceded by a little snow, will begin to affect northwestern then northern parts of the UK through the weekend. Here, temperatures will be back to around average by Sunday, and on Monday it’ll be much milder, with temperatures reaching double digits in Northern Ireland, northern England and Scotland.”