Why is the UK so cold at the moment - and how long will it last?

Sky News

11-02-2025

The UK is currently gripped by gloomy and chilly weather.
Temperatures are a "good few degrees" below where they should be for this time of year, according to the Met Office, and various places such as Northumberland and County Durham have already been covered in snow.
What is causing this spell of cold weather, and how long is it expected to last?
Why is it so cold?
High pressure over Scandinavia has led to a blocked weather pattern across the UK and Ireland, Sky News meteorologist Jo Robinson says.
A blocked weather pattern is where a weather system remains almost stationary for a relatively prolonged period of time.
The current weather pattern bringing in cold winds, coupled with thick cloud caused by low pressure from the North Sea, is causing the chilly weather.
On the weekend, temperatures fell to -8.6C in Altnaharra and Kinbrace in Scotland, with the same area measuring -7.6C on Monday.
When cold air comes over from the east, it can be referred to as the Beast from the East - which the UK experienced in 2018 when temperatures plunged to lows -14C.
But Robinson says that is not what is currently happening, as air over the Baltic States and Russia is not as cold as it would typically be at this time of the year.
How long will it last?
Below average temperatures are set to remain for the rest of the week, although winds will be "not quite as brisk" from midweek onwards.
"The bulk of the UK even to the end of the week stays in this cold air, often quite cloudy, but drier generally away from that far west and south-west corner at the end of the week," Met Office meteorologist Marco Petagna said.
Sleet and snow is expected on higher ground on Wednesday, but most places away from the northwest are expected to "escape the frost," according to Mr Petagna.
It is the end of the week when a "battle" will begin between "high pressure to the east and low pressure to the south west", according to the Met Office.
This risks bringing rain and wintry flurries across the UK, but is currently predicted to be contained to only west Cornwall and Ireland.
What about next week?
Next week brings even more uncertainty, but recent calculations suggest that the chilly eastern winds will stick around, Robinson says.
She says if the air over the Baltic States and Russia does get colder, it could lead to "bitter conditions" reaching the UK, bringing with it "wintry hazards".
Milder, wetter weather will keep trying to move in from the southwest, with a change "likely towards the end of next week".
But northeastern parts of the UK will hold onto colder, drier conditions for longer.
How can there be climate change when it feels so cold?
Anyone who has spent even a week in the UK knows just how frequently the weather can change.
Sky News climate reporter Victoria Seabrook explains that this feature of our island nation is set to continue in the long term, even as the planet gets hotter.
Global heating is measured over the course of years and decades. But that doesn't mean every single day, month or year will be hotter than the last, scientists say.
There will still be fluctuations, and British weather will remain characteristically variable.
The UK is already about 1C hotter on average than in the 1950s, according to experts at the Met Office. That shows in the fact we are getting less frost and snow - but it doesn't mean that we no longer have any.
Weather varies day to day and in different parts of the world, but the world's climate is only getting hotter.