UK faces 48-hour snow storm and 'darkest day of 2024' this week

The UK has been warned it faces the "darkest day of the year" amid a 48-hour snow storm. The latest maps from WX CHARTS, which uses Met Desk data, suggest the only major snowfall will be on December 21 and 22 as we head towards Christmas.

There could be 10mm of rain per hour and 0.4cm of snowfall per hour in Scotland, northern England, Wales and the Midlands on December 21. The whiteout, especially in northern areas, looks to continue the following day, with at least 1cm of snow per hour.

James Madden, from Exacta Weather, explained: "Cold enough for snow by Wednesday evening and into Thursday/Friday update… The following and detailed weather update from yesterday morning (website and Facebook) stated the following in the FIRST paragraphs of the update in reference to this week."

READ MORE All the dates in December snow will hit UK with England facing five days' worth

Mr Madden said: "The upcoming week will bring a very MIXED theme of weather for many parts of the country with further grey skies and COOL to COLD weather among some potential brighter and LESS COLD spells and WINDY to potentially VERY WINDY conditions for many at times."

“Additionally, it WILL also be COLD enough for any PRECIPITATION to turn to SNOW during this period, particularly from around WEDNESDAY EVENING and into THURSDAY and FRIDAY from some EXPECTED low-pressure features that will also make it quite WINDY for many.”

He said: "Some wintry and snow showers in western areas by the weekend + expect another snowy/stormy period around Christmas! Some of the latest third-party model runs and the GFS are now showing the possibility of some sporadic wintry and snow showers in some western parts of the UK and Scotland from around Friday of this week and into this weekend.

"However, they and my own shorter-range weather projections are still not in any kind of recognition for a snowy period to develop immediately after this, and if we do see any changes to this within the models for later next week, then they will come about and become more of a feature within the next 2-4 days for later next week.

"However, moving away from this period and to our next, now quite high-confidence, potentially snowy and stormy period will actually come in and around our expected dates of December 23-27 and match our much earlier several-month-ahead subscribers winter forecast for this on these exact dates.

"Additionally, there are also good indicators for this to occur within my own and other main third-party model projections for these same dates."