UK weather – Torrential rain and -5C temperatures will hit the North as 18C hot spell hits South

TORRENTIAL rain will batter the north with temperatures plummeting to -5C – while southern parts of the UK are expected to hit highs of 18C.

Forecasters are predicting a north-south divide across Britain this week with Scotland fairing worst and southern parts of the main land hitting temperatures reminiscent with mid-summer as November nears.

Tulloch Bridge in northern Scotland already recorded an autumn low of -4.8C this morning but temperatures are expected to rise over the course of the week.

It comes with the nation sandwiched between two opposing weather systems moving in from the north-west and south-east.

The high point of the week looks set to be 18C in London on Saturday with Friday will be relatively warm too at 17C.

The Met Office’s Emma Smith said: “We are going to have some chilly nights. Last night we got to -5C.

“Tonight and tomorrow night are going to be chilly ones. In London and the south-east on Friday we have 17C, and 18C on Saturday.

“I think it’s going to be quite sunny to be honest. But across the UK it’s going to be quite windy.

“I would not personally go to the beach, unless I have got wellies.”

Temperatures will drop a little to 14C or 15C on Sunday and Monday, but the sky will be cloudy with some sun.

Six flood alerts are currently in place across parts of Yorkshire, the Midlands and Lower Avon.

Despite the expected rise in temperature, bookies have have slashed the odds on this October being the coldest on record.

Ladbrokes have cut the odds of the “coldest October ever” from 10/11 to just 1/2 as weather experts predict temperatures to plummet.

The chilling news comes after a weather expert warned we could be set for the coldest winter for 30 years.

But Britain will only be plunged into the freezer after what’s predicted to be the wettest Autumn for nearly two decades.

The UK was drenched by 122mm of rain on average in September – making it the wettest first month of autumn for 19 years.

Now, bookies say temperature records could be broken before the end of the month if the mercury continues to drop.

Ladbrokes spokesman Alex Apati said: “It’s snow joke.

“We’re expecting this to go down as the coldest October ever.”

CHILLY SNAP BITES

Parts of the north will also start to see frost appear this week – and mornings will be chillier than they have been recently.

Mr Keats added: “On Monday morning parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland were be down to as low as -3C and -4C in some spots.

“In the northeast and north it could be as low as -2C and -3C.

“There will be some chilly mornings to watch out for – and some frost as well.

“By Tuesday it will be around a high of 10C in Northern Scotland and about 15C or so in the south.

“Nights will be chilly and there will be more overnight frost.”

RECORD COLD FEARS

Weather forecasters fear Britain is about to be plunged into a miserable wet and snowy winter — the coldest in 30 years.

Exacta weather expert James Madden said: “October is now looking like it will turn out to be colder than average with more of a chance of something wintry setting in through the second half of the month.

“There is a strong chance of widespread frosts and the chance of snowfall which will set the scene for November.

“This will pave the way for what is shaping up to be a colder than average winter with some extreme cold weather events.

“While these could start to make an impact within the next few weeks they will be particularly troublesome from December onward.

“Snow events have been few and far between in recent years, but this winter is looking favourable to bring snow event after snow event as weather systems from the Atlantic clash with cold stagnated air over the UK.”

That could mean a bitterly cold spell to rival the freezing winter of 1963 – which is said to have been the coldest for 200 years.

Mike Saunders, a professor of climate prediction at University College, London told The Sunday Times last month: “This would rank the 2020 January-February central England temperature as the coldest winter since 2013.

“It would also rank January-February 2020 as the seventh coldest winter in the past 30 years.”

Temperatures are predicted to go as low as -14C, reminiscent of the “Beast from the East” which covered the UK in a blanket of snow in 2018.