Met Office reveals when cold snap will end as temperatures to hit 15C in days

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

After days of bitterly cold temperatures, the Met Office has revealed when the UK’s prolonged cold snap will finally come to an end.

On Wednesday night, huge swathes of the UK experienced the coldest nights of winter so far as temperatures plummeted to -14C - and lows of -9C are expected again on Thursday night. The drop in temperatures has been caused by a blast of Arctic air sweeping the country.

However, the Met Office has reported that temperatures could be turning milder as the weekend approaches reaching up to 12C on Sunday, with London getting as warm as 15C on Tuesday.

“We are going to see the weather turning much milder, but also wetter and windier as we go through the weekend,” said Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill. “Temperatures are really going to rise as we go through this weekend.”

Yellow weather warnings for snow and ice remain in place for multiple regions across the UK including Scotland, northern Ireland, Wales and the southwest of England. They will remain in place until Monday with a short reprieve on Saturday.

For Friday, the Met Office said regions in Scotland could expect “further snow, as well as the threat of icy patches”. Disruption is expected as roads and railways are hampered, and untreated roads, pavements and cycle paths are said to be affected by icy patches.

It comes as heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures have closed over a hundred schools, some for a fourth day, as forecasters issued further weather warnings for the weekend.

All schools were closed in Orkney and Shetland on Thursday due to the wintry conditions, with many of them having now been shut all week.

In addition, more than 200 schools and nurseries are closed on Thursday across the Highland region, around 130 are shut in Aberdeenshire and nine in Moray, while many others had delayed starts.

As temperatures become milder, yellow weather warnings for rain have been issued for all of the UK except for Shetland and southeast England, including London.

Meteorologist Annie Shuttleworth said: “Rainfall totals are really expected to build up, and with some snow melt it means we could see some flooding issues.”

A yellow weather warning has also been put in place for wind in regions of Scotland as severe and potentially gale-force winds are expected to cause severe disruption to travel and utilities.

The warning runs for 24 hours from 6am on Sunday, and the Met Office warned winds of up to 70mph could hit exposed coasts, with up to 60mph inland.

An amber cold health alert remains in place across the UK and was extended to be in place until midday on Saturday.

An amber alert means that cold weather impacts are likely to be felt across the whole health service for an extended period of time, with potential for the whole population to be at risk. Older people are particularly vulnerable to the effects of the cold weather.

The Environment Agency issued 13 flood warnings, where flooding was expected, and 59 flood alerts where flooding was possible on Thursday evening.