Arctic air could bring patchy frost to UK this week, says Met Office

The UK could be hit with patchy frost over the next few days as Arctic air sweeps in, bringing with it blustery showers and a small risk of thunder and hail, the Met Office has said.

There could be some snow or sleet on Scottish mountains, with temperatures about 4C or 5C below average for the time of year, coming in at about 10-13C in Scotland and 13-16C in southern England.

The Met Office meteorologist Clare Nasir said: “Yesterday [there were] severe gales across the north-east of Scotland and some persistent rain, all courtesy of this area of low pressure. And the position of it continues to affect our weather through the next few days.”

She said this meant there would be “showers, some sunshine and a cold wind”. The showers will continue through Wednesday evening and overnight, before mostly fading away inland, though they will remain more frequent across northern and western areas.

Frost could develop in some areas overnight as temperatures drop to 4C or 5C. “Winds won’t be as blustery across inland areas. [There will be] showers particularly along the coastline, [and] they may develop inland, but there will be some drier interludes and a mix of cloud and sunshine yet again, [with] temperatures 14C or 15C in the south,” Nasir said.

On Thursday night there could be more patchy frost, before a mostly drier day on Friday.

Nasir added: “A ridge of high pressure is moving in, so a cold start, with a localised frost, but with that we’ll see some sunshine. All change though as we head into the weekend from the north-west.”

Temperatures are expected to move closer to the average for this time of year at the weekend, with highs of up to 21C in the south.

The meteorologist Tom Morgan said: “It will be much warmer and settled in the south, but it’s turning wet and windy for western Scotland. It’s much more typical September weather on the way into next week too.”