Met Office forecast: Temperatures could drop to -20C as ice warnings remain in place, when will it be warmer

Weather warnings for ice remain in effect across much of Wales, Northern Ireland, and eastern England until 10am on Friday. On Wednesday night, temperatures fell to -12.4C in Inverness-shire, Scotland. The Met Office forecasts that lower valleys in Scotland could see readings between -12C and -16C on Thursday night, with even colder conditions expected on Friday night.

Met Office meteorologist Liam Eslick said: “It’s going to be another cold couple of days, and recovering into the early part of next week. Anywhere across the UK is likely to see those temperatures dipping below freezing and likely to see quite severe frost and ice to form overnight tonight.”

Freezing fog is expected overnight across central and south-east England, as well as parts of Wales, and could linger throughout Friday, particularly in some stubborn areas. Mr Eslick added: “We are telling people to take care if you are travelling around with these cold temperatures for tomorrow, but at least it’s quite settled and away from that freezing fog it will be nice, bright and sunny.”

Snow is also predicted for parts of northern Scotland and possibly the very north-east of England on Friday. Devon and Cornwall may see rain and snow, particularly in Dartmoor and Exmoor, as a front approaches the south-west.

Manchester Airport temporarily closed both runways on Thursday morning due to heavy snowfall but has since reopened. Transport for Wales shut down some rail lines following track damage caused by severe weather. Hundreds of schools across Scotland and about 90 in Wales were also closed on Thursday due to adverse conditions.

Friday night could bring the lowest temperatures of the current cold snap, with predictions of -15C to -20C in parts of Scotland and northern England. Mr Eslick explained: “We probably don’t really expect many places to get close to minus 20C, but we could see one or two places that could just touch that mark overnight Friday into Saturday. Especially where there’s still snow on the ground across Scotland and northern England, that’s sort of a perfect scenario to see those temperatures just plummet.”

When will it be warmer?

The weekend will remain cold, with some relief beginning on Sunday as clouds move in from the west, preventing temperatures from dropping as drastically. Mr Eslick added: “By Monday (January 13), we are expecting the temperatures to come back up to what we would expect for this time of year, which is around sort of 7C or 8C.”