precipitation

Any snow would therefore depend greatly on the precise track of the low pressure, the heaviness of the precipitation and the elevation of the land.

However, a warming world means we are more likely to see winter precipitation fall as rain rather than snow, external.

Consecutive 12-month periods with up to twice the normal amount of precipitation produced a lot of “smaller fuels” in the form of underbrush and grasses, he said, “and that ends up being the foundation for fires to very efficiently spread.”

While the air will be cold enough for precipitation to fall as sleet or snow for some parts of the UK, where and how much may fall will only really be known over the coming days.

This means extreme precipitation "will be more extreme" and, under some global warming scenarios, heat and humidity could mean some parts of the country "would not be liveable", he says.