UK weather: Met Office yellow weather warning for rain before Troll from Trondheim brings snow next week

The Met Office has issued a new yellow weather warning over the weekend as the UK is expected to see another spell of snow next week. The yellow weather warning for rain is expected to affect areas in western Scotland from tomorrow (February 4) at 6pm until 9pm on Monday (February 5).

The weather warning is expected to bring travel disruption, power cuts and flooding. The Met Office says the “rain will slowly push north through Sunday, before pivoting and then returning south later on Monday.”

It added: “Some southern parts of the warning area may see a drier interlude for a time on Monday and there is some uncertainty as to how far north the rain gets. 40-75 mm of rain may fall quite widely in the warning area, but there is potential for 120-170 mm in the wettest areas, this perhaps most likely in parts of Argyll, Lochaber and Wester Ross.”

Listed are the affected regions and local authorities:

• Perth and Kinross

• Stirling

• Highland

• Argyll and Bute

• Inverclyde

• North Ayrshire

• Renfrewshire

• West Dunbartonshire

The Met Office says it will be "largely cloudy, mild and breezy across Wales, central and southern England" today "with rain and drizzle across western parts", adding that there may be "some brighter interludes to the east." It added that it will be "windy in the north and temperatures more towards average, with sunny spells and blustery showers." Tomorrow is forecast to be "largely cloudy with drizzle and hill fog, and areas of persistent rain in the northwest" with "some sunny spells to the east."

The weather warning comes as experts say snow will fall in Scotland and even potentially down south as cold air, which has been dubbed the “Troll from Trondheim”, travels over from Norway. According to WXCharts, an interactive weather map provider using Met Office data, the UK will be coldest on 10 February, with certain areas of Scotland and Wales seeing minimum temperatures dropping to -8C. In its long-range forecast, the Met Office has also said there will be some hill snow over the weekend and that “there is a chance colder conditions could start to feature” in the second week of February.

The forecaster said: "Although there is still some uncertainty by the start of this period is it more probable that conditions will start to become drier and more settled overall for much of the UK with winds from the north. This would increase the likelihood of less mild, or colder conditions developing more widely and increase chance of snow, especially in the north and east."