UK weather: Storm to batter Britain this weekend

UK weather: Arctic April to stay as Britain braces itself for cold snap

26 April

The UK could see temperatures drop to -5C this week, colder than Siberia, as a blast of Arctic air hits the country.

Along with the wintry temperatures and showers of rain, snow could fall on exposed regions in Scotland and the north of England.

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"Winds are coming from the north. They originated in the Arctic and that's why it is colder than we normally expect it to be at this time of year," Met Office forecaster Emma Boorman told the Daily Telegraph.

"In the south, it will be a mixture of sunshine and showers but further north, these showers will turn increasingly wintry – that's a mixture of rain, some sleet and some snow."

Andrew Proctor, the director of advice and support at Asthma UK, told the Daily Mirror that people with asthma would need to take extra care.

"Cold air can have a severe impact on people with asthma, with as many as three quarters telling us it can trigger symptoms, making sensitive airways tighten up quickly and putting them at risk of a potentially life threatening asthma attack," he said.

The weather doesn't look as if it will be changing anytime soon, neither, with one Met Office spokesman telling the Daily Mail: "It's going to be a lot colder than it has been over the last week."

He added: "We have issued yellow weather warnings for snow and ice in parts of Scotland and there will be up to ten centimetres of snow on high levels. There may be snow as far down as Yorkshire and even Suffolk and it will be breezy and chilly throughout."

UK weather: Storm Katie causes chaos for southern England

29 March

Police are searching for a man whose kayak is believed to have capsized in the waters of the river Wey, near Guildford, in Surrey, during the aftermath of Storm Katie.

Surrey Police said the unidentified man had overturned at about midday on Easter Monday, when the river was flooded.

"We have a large number of officers out looking for this man alongside a number of fire crews," said Chief Inspector Dave Mason. "The man was spotted in the water by several members of the public and was clearly in difficulty due to the extremely strong current. We are doing everything we can to try and find him."

The man's disappearance came after Storm Katie brought gusts of up to 105mph to parts of southern England over the weekend.

Flights and trains were heavily disrupted, with Heathrow having to cancel more than 90 flights and divert 20 others to different airports.

One passenger on board a flight from Budapest to Gatwick claimed his plane was "dropping suddenly and swinging left to right" before the pilot "suddenly aborted the landing", reports The Times.

"People then began being ill and sick," he added. "We eventually landed complete with a full round of applause and people crying at Birmingham airport."

In London, the fire service said it had dealt with more than 110 incidents due to high winds. Some locals in Greenwich were forced to leave their homes after a crane became loose and collapsed.

The strongest winds were felt on the Isle of Wight, where gusts of 106mph were recorded. Storm Katie left the British mainland late on Monday morning, according to the BBC, and passed over the southern North Sea yesterday evening.