Britain is set to freeze in -3C temperatures within days, with meteorologists saying more than 60 counties will see the mercury drop to 0C or colder this weekend. It could be as cold as -3C on Saturday, rounding off a week of miserable weather that started with a yellow weather warning for fog.
Cold snap spreads across Britain
The cold snap sweeps across most of Scotland, northern England, and mid-Wales on Thursday (November 12). The weather shows no improvement by Friday (November 13) as Scotland gets colder, down to -3C, more Welsh areas fail to warm up past the point of freezing, and some parts of the west country only hit 0C. It worsens again on Saturday.
The start of next week begins above freezing but still very cold, gradually warming up, according to WX Charts.
Met Office forecast and polar vortex warning
The Met Office forecast for the coming week says: "Spells of rain continue across the south through midweek. Colder conditions develop further north with showers, some turning wintry. Frosts become increasingly widespread later."
In total, 24 English, 20 Scots, 13 Welsh, and five Northern Irish counties will see the mercury drop to 0C or below on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. That is a total of 62.
The forecast comes as experts believe the polar vortex winds are due to collapse at their earliest date ever recorded. The vortex blows wind from the west around the north pole every year from late summer to January. However, it usually separates into two separate vortices, which effectively forces colder air further south - with northern Europe bearing the brunt of the disruption.
Full list of affected counties
This year, experts say the vortex could collapse in November, before the earliest separation previously seen - November 28, 1969, reports The Telegraph. The full list of counties where it will hit 0C or colder includes the following.
Scotland: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll & Bute, Banffshire, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries & Galloway, Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Fife, Highland, Lanarkshire, Midlothian, Moray, Outer Hebrides, Perth & Kinross, Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders, Stirling, West Lothian.
Northern Ireland: County Antrim, County Armagh, County Fermanagh, County Londonderry, County Tyrone.
Wales: Blaenau Gwent, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire, Powys, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wrexham.
England: Buckinghamshire, Cheshire, County Durham, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Herefordshire, Lancashire, Leicestershire, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire.
