As parts of the UK continue to experience wintry weather, with snow lying on the ground in some parts, here in Jersey the ongoing cold snap brings with it a higher than normal chance of snow.
However, current forecasts suggest any wintry showers are likely to be isolated flurries here and there alongside rain.
Jersey Met Office duty forecaster Rob Plummer said: ‘We are likely to get moments of snow mixed in with rain showers, it will be a bit of luck of the draw about where you are on the Island if you see any snow.’
He said current forecasts put the Island in a ‘very marginal’ position where if the temperature were to drop by a couple of degrees then there could be a ‘dusting’ of snow.
But he said current forecasts were for temperatures of between 3°C and 6°C, meaning it would mainly just be a wet first half of the week.
‘As the week goes ahead, although it is not really getting any warmer, it is likely to get drier. The showers are thick and fast at the moment but on Thursday and Friday are expected to be more isolated and there may be a bit of sun later in the week.’
He added: ‘While we have this colder air it would only take a little twist and turn of the forecast story to change and snow would not be wildly out of reach. However, there is no strong signal for it at the moment.’
Meteorologists in the UK are said to be tracking two weather events that may affect the conditions the UK faces over the coming weeks – a La Nina, which would probably bring wet and stormy weather, and sudden stratospheric warming, associated with very cold weather.
Sudden stratospheric warming in 2018 brought the heavy snow termed the Beast from the East. However, the UK Met Office has said this time it is more likely to bring more cold weather without heavy snow, although it is difficult to predict.
‘The feeling at the moment is that we may see some colder weather towards the end of January into February, but probably the sort of weather that we’re seeing at the moment, as opposed to what is popularly perceived as a Beast from the East,’ said UK Met Office spokeswoman Nicola Maxey.
