The met office have issued a level 2 cold weather alert
Current alert level: Level 2 - Alert and Readiness
Issued at:
There is an 80% probability of severe cold weather between 0600 on Friday 18 Jan and 0600 on Monday 21 Jan in parts of England. This weather could increase the health risks to vulnerable patients and disrupt the delivery of services. Please refer to the national Cold Weather Plan and your Trust's emergency plan for appropriate preventive action.
Colder conditions becoming established across the country from Wednesday as a cold front clears southeast, with strong northwesterly winds following. Wintry showers spreading south overnight Wednesday and into Thursday giving a slight snow cover in places, mainly across northern hills, with some icy patches also likely. Winds then fall light overnight Thursday into Friday, with clear spells allowing a widespread frost to develop across the country. Atlantic fronts then try to push in from the west during Friday and Saturday with outbreaks of rain, preceded by some sleet and hill snow, likely to affect SW England and perhaps parts of central southern England, the West Midlands, and northwest England. However, further east remaining cold and dry.
Sunday should see largely dry but cold conditions across most areas, but a further band of rain, sleet or snow may edge into the far northwest later. There is currently significant uncertainty regarding the eastward extent of the precipitation on Friday and Saturday, but any snowfall accumulations look to be small and mostly confined to hills at the present time. There is higher confidence that many northern, central and eastern areas will remain largely dry but cold through the weekend. Trigger criteria are expected to be met for temperatures for northern, central, and eastern regions, with southern areas likely to remain above Alert thresholds for this period. This Alert may be updated later in the week when more certainty emerges in the precipitation detail for the weekend.
An update will be issued when the alert level changes in any region. Alerts are issued once a day by 0900 if required and are not subject to amendment in between standard issue times. Note that the details of the forecast weather are valid at the time of issue but may change over the period that an alert remains in force. These details will not be updated here unless the alert level also changes, the latest forecast details can be obtained at the following link: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/#?tab=map
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/cold-weather-alert/#?tab=coldWeatherAlert