Snow update

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More significant snow on the way for Monday night

Boxing Day started exceptionally cold with -16C (10F) being recorded in Pershore, Worcestershire.

In fact if December continues as cold as it has been so far, it will be the United Kingdom's coldest December since records began in 1910.

However, with temperatures in most areas set to rise from Tuesday this is still not guaranteed.

While this weekend has been visibly white for many of us across the country with plenty of lying snow, only the cities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Lincoln, as well as parts of North Yorkshire, had an official white Christmas this year with fresh falling snow on Christmas Day.

Why the cold weather?

The UK's weather is generally mild for its latitude because of its position next to the Atlantic, which is a relatively warm body of water.

Most of the weather for the British Isles tends to come from the Atlantic due to the jet stream, which is a rapidly moving ribbon of air in the upper atmosphere.

The jet stream generally moves in a west to east direction, bringing mild, wet weather from the Atlantic.

This winter, the jet stream is meandering like a river, and as a result our weather is tending to come from unusual directions such as the north and the east, bringing much colder conditions.

When the westerly jet stream has been blocked, it tends to remain in this stubborn state for some time.

UK snow: A sign of things to come?