Brace yourselves, because Britain is set to endure its coldest week in five years.
Heavy snow and frost are hurtling our way with the Met Office issuing yellow weather warnings for both Monday and Tuesday, care of a polar vortex with origins in Siberia.
Snow warnings are in place from Monday at 4pm, running all the way through until midnight on Tuesday.
On Monday London, the South East, East and West Midlands and the East of England could see up to 10cm of snow.
As its namesake would suggest, this ‘beast from the East’ is due to cloak the entire Eastern side of the country with heavy snow by Tuesday, stretching from the Scottish Highlands to the South East coast. Temperatures are expected to drop well below zero as the week progresses.
The Met Office predicts this will be the longest prolonged spell of cold weather since 2013, and it’s all down to an area of high pressure accumulating over Scandinavia which is pulling up very cold air from Eastern Europe and as far afield as the Russian territories.
We still have a weekend before the snow is set to fall and if you’re planning to be out and about, you can expect crisp blue skies on Saturday – though temperatures will steadily be dropping by Sunday.
Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge told HuffPost UK: “From next week, nowhere is immune. This is going to be a very cold spell with some high impact weather heading our way and it’s a pattern we will be locked in until early March.”