Met Office verdict on freezing blizzard this week with UK set to be colder than Iceland

The latest weather maps and Met Office forecast shows a brutal Arctic blast sweeping across the UK this week.

The northerly weather front will unleash snow storms and send the temperatures tumbling.

The Met Office has said that it is “likely” parts of the UK could experience blizzard-like conditions from today.

A combination of gale-force winds and heavy snow could unleash Arctic blizzards throughout the country in hours.

This comes as Britain braces itself for a freezing week of weather warnings.

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There are weather warnings in place from today until Thursday, thanks to a bloc of Arctic air sweeping in from the north.

The Met Office‘s severe yellow weather alerts warn of strong winds, heavy snow, and potentially disruptive ice.

The latest weather maps from WXCharts show an Arctic wind plunging most of the UK into icy temperatures by Monday 6pm.

The Met Office has warned that this will be just the start, as parts of Scotland, northern England, and Wales could see locally up to 20cm of snow on Tuesday.

By Wednesday, the latest weather maps show temperatures dropping to -10C in Scotland, -6C in northern England and zero degrees in London. Meanwhile Iceland will only reach lows of -7C.

On Thursday, a weather map for Thursday midnight shows vast amounts of snow accumulating in northern Scotland, with between 20 to 30cm in elevated areas.

Around 3cm of snow could be dumped in northern England while low-level areas of Scotland could see 5cm.

The temperatures will drop even further, with the entire country set to wake up to subzero temperatures on Friday morning.

WXCharts forecasts -11C in central Scotland, -4C in Northern Ireland and -8C in northern England.

London and the Midlands are expected to start Friday in -3C weather.

Senior operating meteorologist Marco Petagna explained the sudden wintry turn to the Mirror: “For much of the winter so far, we’ve seen wind coming off the Atlantic, the Jet Stream pushing weather systems in from the west.

“Now the Jet Stream is much more amplified, we call it north-south aligned rather than west-east, that has allowed high pressure to come established to the west of the UK and low pressure to the east and that’s driving this northerly flow down across us in the next few days.

“It’s a fairly blocked, slow moving pattern, so a sustained spell of northerly winds pushing down across the UK.”

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Met Office have issued a yellow cold weather alert for England over the week ahead.

UKHSA’s Dr Agostinho Sousa said: “It is vital to check in on friends, family and neighbours to ensure they are well prepared for the cold weather next week.”

Meanwhile, drivers have been advised to check the weather before they set off, leave more time for their journey and avoid driving unless absolutely necessary in very bad conditions.