Icy London is set to thaw rapidly with forecasters predicting a return to unseasonably warm 13C weather next week.
The news will come as some relief for Londoners watching their gas and electricity bills soar after putting on their heating during the snowy weather front which will see temperatures plunge to -4C on Wednesday night.
It will mark the end to the snow that blanketed London on Sunday night bringing both joy to Londoners and chaos to the capital’s transport networks.
Paul Gundersen, Met Office Chief Forecaster, told The Daily Star: “Over the last week, the UK has been held in a northerly airflow bringing cold, sometimes Arctic air, to the UK.
“We will still have this northerly influence to our weather patterns until the weekend, but then the cold conditions will lose exclusive dominance over the UK’s weather patterns and we will move into a regime where relatively mild and relatively cold conditions will vie for supremacy.
“We can expect changeable conditions with colder and milder air not too far away from our shores, but it does seem that the Atlantic ‘has woken up’ compared with recent days and will be a stronger influence, countering any further bouts of extreme cold conditions, although spells of further wintry weather remain possible through the rest of December.”
And Met Office spokesman Nicola Maxey told Daily Express: “The weather will stay cold this week with daytime temperatures not getting much above freezing for many and a continued fog and ice risk.
“The cold weather will last into next weekend but there are indications that we will see temperatures rising as we go into next week with a return to milder weather from then.”
Despite some expected showers temperatures next week will peak at 13C later on Monday.
The BBC has also dismissed hopes of a white Christmas this year predicting overcast skys and highs of 8C.
