Temperatures could plunge to -10°C this weekend after the UK was battered by Storm Christoph.
Thousands of homes were evacuated and an emergency Cobra meeting called as devastating flooding hit parts of North West England and Wales this week.
A man became the first feared victim of the storm as a body was discovered in a flooded river near Cardiff Castle.
Severe flood warnings – signalling a ‘threat to life’ – remain in place this morning on the River Dee at Farndon, Bangor-on-Dee and the Lower Dee Valley near Llangollen.
However, the storm is set to move eastwards, making way for wintry weather.
Temperatures could drop to -10°C tonight in localised parts of Scotland and -7°C in parts of England.
A yellow weather warning for ice stretches from the Scottish Highlands, down to the north west of England and into Wales, as well as covering Northern Ireland until 10am this morning.
Another yellow warning for snow and ice is in place across northern parts of Scotland until Friday lunchtime.
Meteorologist Craig Snell said: ‘We’re losing the rain but gaining some colder and possibly some wintry weather too.’
He added: ‘It will be feeling cold, I think that certainly that will be something that we will all be noticing it will be colder than it was to start the week.
‘I think the main thing for most of us will be that we will see some frosty nights and with the ground wet from the rain we’ve had we may well see some icy patches.’
As of 5am on Friday morning, there were an additional 182 flood warnings and 176 less serious flood alerts still in place in England, 13 flood warnings and 27 flood alerts in Wales and four flood alerts in Scotland.
Environment Secretary George Eustice warned yesterday afternoon ‘the danger has not passed’.
In a statement following the Cobra meeting, he said: ‘The water levels remain high and there is the risk of possible further flooding next week so everyone needs to remain vigilant, follow the advice and sign up for flood alerts.’
It comes after rescue teams raced to save dozens of care home residents as floodwaters rose in Cheshire on Thursday.
Around 40 residents were assisted out of the Weaver Court care home in Northwich with dinghies, as most of the town centre remained water.
Cheshire Fire and Rescue rescued 21 people by boat from Lea Court nursing home in the town of Warrington.
Heavy flood water in Wrexham, Wales threatened to engulf a factory and warehouse where millions of doses of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine are being made.
Meanwhile, people were ordered to leave their homes in the Didsbury and Northenden areas of Greater Manchester, Bangor-on-Dee in North Wales and in the Skewen area of Neath, North Wales.
Parts of the North West ravaged by flooding earlier in the week turned drier on Thursday evening.
The highest daily total was 31mm in Bicester between midnight and 8pm, while 29mm fell in Aberdeenshire.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
source https://metro.co.uk/2021/01/22/uk-bracing-10c-weekend-storm-christoph-devastation-13947208/