The UK has been experiencing some particularly cold weather recently. (Picture: David Mbiyu/SOPA Images/Shutterstock)

If you’ve stepped foot outside your front door recently, you’ll have noticed that the UK weather has been even colder than usual.

The country has been going through quite the cold snap over the last week, with temperatures in some places regularly dipping as low as -10°C at night and barely struggling into single digits during the day.

Although these temperatures aren’t unheard of in the UK, the Met Office has called it ‘the most significant and widespread spell of cold conditions since February 2021.’

While this is far from the UK’s lowest temperature of -27.2 °C (recorded on both 30 December 1995 and 10 January 1982), the current cost of living crisis and steep increase in the price of energy for heating has made the low temperatures particularly problematic for some.

The current cold snap actually follows a year of record-breaking weather during which the UK also experienced its highest-recorded temperature of 40.3°C back in July.

But just why have temperatures plummeted so low recently?

Here’s what you need to know.

Why has the UK been so cold recently?

A concentration of arctic air from the north is to blame for the recent spell of low temperatures.

When the colder temperatures first started to bite, Met Office Chief Meteorologist, Steve Willington, said: ‘As an Arctic maritime airmass settles across the UK temperatures will fall with widespread overnight frosts, severe in places, and daytime temperatures only a few degrees above freezing.’

Yellow National Severe Weather warnings for ice and snow were also issued for parts of the country.

Braemer, in Aberdeenshire, was the coldest place in the UK on Tuesday night (December 13) recording a low of -17.3°C and breaking Monday’s record for the coldest night of the year at -15.7°C.

What is the weather looking like moving forwards?

In its latest update yesterday, the Met Office said that, although the icy winter conditions will continue this week, we could be in for a slightly brighter weekend.

Several weather warnings will continue to be in place, with a risk of snow and sleet particularly prevalent in northern and eastern coastal areas, with some north-western regions also likely to see snow by the end of the week.

Paul Gundersen, Met Office Chief Forecaster, said: ‘Over the last week, the UK has been held in a northerly airflow bringing cold, sometimes Arctic air, to the UK.’

‘We will still have this northerly influence to our weather patterns until the weekend, but then the cold conditions will lose exclusive dominance over the UK’s weather patterns and we will move into a regime where relatively mild and relatively cold conditions will vie for supremacy.’

‘We can expect changeable conditions with colder and milder air not too far away from our shores, but it does seem that the Atlantic ‘has woken up’ compared with recent days and will be a stronger influence, countering any further bouts of extreme cold conditions, although spells of further wintry weather remain possible through the rest of December.’

MORE : Why the UK (-3°C) feels colder than Canada (-30°C) – even though it really isn’t

MORE : You could be eligible for £25 a day pay outs if cold weather stays

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Some places have seen temperatures as low as -10 °C.