Severe frosts then milder air creeping in later this weekend

It’s been an eventful two weeks with heavy and persistent rain on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Oldham weather expert Jon Baylis recorded the most rainfall ever in a 24-hour period.

In fact, 68mm of rain fell in just 18 hours, bringing horrendous flooding to parts of the region.

More recently the weather has turned much colder and we are now into our fifth day of lying snow in some places.

It’s not often thesedays that we get snow, let alone see snow falling day-after-day.

And we can’t remember the last time that Manchester airport had delays for three days in a row for snow on the runway.

The first initial snowfall was accompanied by some strong winds which led to drifting on the hills where depths were recorded of 1-2ft.

Normally, when we get a warning for snow, which in this case was not just a yellow warning, but an amber warning; a lot of us expect it to be a false alarm, especially on low ground where normally it’s rain or sleet that arrives.

But this time even lower ground managed to get some snow with several inches in places.

So, when will the cold go?

Below is Jon's latest in-depth forecast.

It is set to remain cold until into the weekend.

With clearing skies over the next couple of nights, temperatures will plummet and because we have snow-cover in some areas, this will help to lower the temperature further and Jon would not be surprised to see rurally in the hills, -10°C and in Northern England or Scotland a low between -15°C and -20°C

Today (Thursday): A harsh frost to start with plenty of ice.

There could also be the odd freezing fog patch.

Hopefully, once cleared, it should be a nice day with plenty of sunshine, albeit a bit hazy.

There will be some wintry showers but these should be way out to the west.

Temperatures struggling to get above freezing and after dark another severe frost will set in and temperatures could get close to negative double-figures rurally and where we have snow-cover.

Max 1°C Min -9°C.

Friday: Dry with hazy bright or sunny spells after a very cold start.

Cloud will thicken later but it should remain dry with another frost overnight but not as cold as recently due to more in the way of cloud.

Max 2°C Min -3°C.

Weekend: Slowly but surely milder air will start to push the cold away into the continent.

Saturday: A slight frost to start and then it should be a mostly cloudy day making it feel cold with limited bright spells.

There is a weather-front moving in from the west slowly, which is going to bring milder air and initially this might have some light sleet and snow on it.

But at this stage this is expected to decay as it pushes into the region so not much in the way of precipitation is expected.

The breeze will pick up which will make it feel colder than what it is but still a chilly day overall.

Max 3°C Min -1°C.

Sunday: Sunday looks like the day of change but the majority of the day should still be cold and cloudy.

Winds will pick up later in the day and will eventually switch to a milder southwesterly direction.

Chilly especially in the wind, but overnight temperatures will start to rise as milder air pushes in from the Atlantic.

Max 4°C Min 3°C.

Outlook: Much milder with temperatures returning close to double figures.

The first part of the week is expected to be cloudy.

Perhaps thick enough for drizzle at times but a lot of dry weather and the second half of the week should see more in the way of sunshine.

Snow is not expected.

In fact not much rain is expected either with a lot of dry weather due to high pressure being in charge.

Follow @ChadWeather on X and Bluesky for the latest forecasts and warnings.

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