Weather: Will we get snow in Dorset this week?

Temperatures are set to plunge by Friday with daytime highs of between 2C and 5C.

Bournemouth-based forecaster Bournemouth & Poole Weather said by the end of this week the forecast looks colder than anything we had last winter.

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He told the Daily Echo: “It’s certainly going to be getting colder, in fact Friday and Saturday look colder than anything we had last winter (not difficult given how mild it was) Friday looks especially raw, temps 2-5c most of the day with primarily very cold rain, pretty grim really.

Re later this week, Friday looks grim, raw, temps of 3 or 4c and wet. Any snow looks highly unlikely. Personally id ignore this image from the GFS model this morning (which will be all the internet) & shows heavy snow over us - it’s a massive outlier @Bournemouthecho @DorsetSnow pic.twitter.com/wAWV77jrzr

— Bournemouth & Poole Weather (@BournemouthWea1) December 1, 2020

"You will possibly see images being posted this morning from lots of excited people from a forecast model called gfs which is showing a fair bit of snow falling right through Friday over our area, it does NOT make a lot of sense to be honest given surface parameters for temperatures and dew points are above freezing.”

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However, he did say some parts of Dorset could see some falling snow.

He added: “That said higher places like Shaftesbury could see some falling snow for a time. Elsewhere it’s just too marginal, even if it does anything settling is almost impossible due to latent heat still stored in the ground.”

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Wessex Weather said: “Snow is possible Friday into Saturday but it’s a very marginal situation this far south, and I’m always sceptical of snow from northerly winds in Dorset. Our best chance of snow here is a cold easterly with low pressure moving up from France, and there’s little sign of that yet.”

A Met Office spokesperson said: "It’ll certainly feel more like winter this week with low temperatures and a chance of frost for many, with snow in the forecast too – however this is mostly expected across northern areas of the UK, particularly Scotland and hills and mountains in northern England on Thursday and Friday. 

"Some showers will fall as snow over high ground in Northern Ireland and Wales and whilst sleet or snow showers can’t be ruled out further south (across the areas you cover), the chance of snow accumulating is very low. It’ll feel colder later in the week with highs of around 5 to 7 Celsius."