A new map has shown Edinburgh can expect heavy snow in the coming weeks, thanks to stratospheric warming which increases the risk of an Arctic blast moving eastwards.
With mild temperatures seen so far in February, temperatures could fall below freezing. This could continue into March, with a sudden snowy plume heading across the UK on the first day of the new month, according to the Daily Express.
WXCharts, an interactive weather model, shows the weather change can be expected on February 28. Snow could hit snow hitting northern England and Scotland, but falling as rain across Northern Ireland and most of Wales.
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Maps currently only go up to March 1 - but they show what appears to be a sudden freeze hitting the country. Jim Dale, a senior meteorologist at British Weather Services, told Express.co.uk: "It’s on the radar as a watching brief.
"It is a long piece of string into March as to where any Arctic thrust will end up, but yes the sudden stratospheric warming is in motion."
Sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) is a term used to describe warming high up in the stratosophere, leading to changes in weather at the surface. Extreme winter cold weather, dubbed the Beast from the East in 2018, was linked to surface effects from SSW.
The Met Office's guidance on SSW said: "The term sudden stratospheric warming refers to what is observed in the stratosphere - a rapid warming (up to about 50C in just a couple of days), between 10 km and 50 km above the earth’s surface.
"This is so high up that we don’t feel the ‘warming’ ourselves. However, usually a few weeks later, we can start to see knock-on effects on the jet stream, which in turn effects our weather lower down (in the troposphere)."
In some instances, it can cause the jet stream to snake more, blocking high pressure over the North Atlantic and Scandinavia causing the UK and parts of northern Europe to endure cold dry weather - causing cold easterly winds to develop.
This can often lead to a drop in the mercury, a snow risk and a potential Beast from the East occurring, although it's important to note that this weather event does not happen every year, and it doesn't always lead to these extremes.
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