Weather and climate change

Headline:

Largely dry, turning colder in the New Year.

This Evening and Tonight:

Skies clearing for many tonight, allowing temperatures to fall away. A cold night with a widespread frost, particularly in the north. A few coastal showers will continue to affect eastern counties.

Tuesday:

Mostly dry with patchy cloud and sunny spells. A few showers likely in eastern coastal counties. Cloud thickens in northern Scotland later with patchy rain and strengthening winds arriving.

Outlook for Wednesday to Friday:

Largely settled for many on New Year's Eve, but turning windy with showers in Scotland. Turning colder in the New Year with wintry showers becoming more widespread with icy patches.

Updated: 16:00 (UTC) on Mon 29 Dec 2025

Northerly winds will bring a spell of very cold, wintry conditions to much of if not all of the UK through at least the early part of this period. These will bring snow showers to areas that are exposed to onshore winds. Subtle day-to-day changes in wind direction will change the places most exposed to the showers, but where they occur some significant accumulations of snow are likely. There are likely to be some more coherent bands of sleet and snow working south, and these may bring a risk of more prolonged and widespread wintry precipitation affecting some inland areas. Things become less certain by the second week of January, however it's possible the cold conditions may persist with an ongoing risk of winter hazards across much of the UK.

Updated: 14:00 (UTC) on Mon 29 Dec 2025

High pressure will probably be close to the UK at the start of this period, perhaps most likely centered to the west, and whilst this may allow relatively settled and dry conditions with a risk of frost and fog initially, there will be the chance of some occasional wet weather at times, perhaps more especially in the north and east. Given some relatively cold air close to the UK, this may bring the chance of some wintry hazards in places. Towards mid-month, there is the potential for rather more changeable conditions to develop more widely, although confidence in this aspect of the forecast is currently low.

Updated: 15:00 (UTC) on Mon 29 Dec 2025