Heavy snow warning: Met Office says 'Arctic freeze' will strike between Christmas and New Year as temperatures plunge to -13C

The Met Office have warned that an Arctic Freeze will strike between Christmas and New Year as temperatures are expected to plunge as low as -13C.

Warmer air from Madeira brought an “extraordinary” temperature rise earlier this week after days of wintry conditions.

The Met Office said areas of the UK saw temperatures of around 14C on Monday, with a high of 15.8C recorded in Rhyl, Wales.

Braemar in Scotland saw a daytime high of -9.3C and a night-time low of -7.3C this time last week, while other places around the country experienced lows of -10C to -15C in the following days.

Looking ahead at the forecast for the festive period, senior meteorologist Jim Dale told the Daily Star: “It all remains in the melting pot, models are not agreeing but I’m still going for a north/south profile split for Christmas and a colder potentially snowier run into the New Year."

He continued: “"I have Edinburgh and Leeds as the current fav cities but even at this stage nothing is for granted."

Elsewhere, senior forecaster Ian Finnis said: “The mild conditions look to remain for the rest of this week for most of England and Wales.

"However, after a few mild days across Scotland, cold air looks to return from the north towards the end of this week and this cold air could spread further south into England for Christmas, but there’s a great deal of uncertainty how far south and where there could be snow in this colder air.”