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Winter Is Here! The First Snow Falls On The UK Ahead Of Massive Cold Snap

Winter Is Here! The First Snow Falls On The UK Ahead Of Massive Cold Snap

There was a decent dusting in the Scottish Highlands but it appears the rest of the UK will get very cold soon...

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

If it wasn't the Coca-Cola truck, the lights going up around your neighbourhood or the seemingly endless festive tunes being played by department stores, then snow falling somewhere in the UK is certainly the best indication that Christmas is around the corner.

The white dusting has been spotted at Cairngorm Mountain in the eastern Scottish Highlands, as well as at Glencoe. Several people were pictured going for a lovely Sunday stroll in the snow on the mountain, seemingly undeterred that it's absolutely freezing.

But if you thought the weather was a bit chilly this weekend, we might have to batten down the hatches as a cold snap is expected to make life much, much colder.

According to the Sun, polar winds are due to sweep across Britain over the next 48 hours, which could bring temperatures of -10.

Yes, minus fucking 10.

via GIPHY

A spokesperson for the Met Office has told the newspaper: "Pacific cooling is very likely to continue in coming weeks, leading to a full La Nina event over the next few months.

"The risk of colder-than-normal conditions remains a significant possibility, with drivers of UK winter weather such as La Nina favouring colder-than-normal weather."

The La Nina weather event is the counterpart of the El Nino, and causes the sea surface temperature across the Eastern Central Pacific Ocean to drop by three to five degrees Celsius. It can also result in intense storms and even droughts in other places.

The Met Office spokesperson added: "Snow and ice will be a much higher threat this winter, and could affect London.

Snow driving
Snow driving

Credit: PA

"There is a higher-than-normal potential for temperatures below -10°C further north, and also cold temperatures further south."

Weather experts are predicting this winter could be as cold as the one seen during the 2012/13 season. In that year, there was chaos on the roads as many were coated in black ice and snow falls meant some passageways were completely blocked.

Around 31,000 people died in England and Wales from the winter, which was a 29 percent increase from the year before. According to the Office for National Statistics: "The number of excess winter deaths in 2012/13 was the highest since 2008/09, yet was still 17 percent lower than the 36,450 excess winter deaths reported for the 2008/09 winter."

So if you've been holding off from wearing your big winter coat, it might be time to dust it off and keep yourself warm.

Sources: The Sun, Office for National Statistics

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Winter, Snow, Weather, Christmas, UK News, Interesting, UK, Britain