WEATHER WARNING: Bitterly cold Russian air to blast NI

A spell of bitterly cold weather is set to blast Northern Ireland next week.
Ice warningIce warning
Ice warning

The freezing temperatures - with air coming from Siberia - is expected to start on Sunday (February 25).

Snow is also expected. Also read this

Martin Bowles, a Meteorologist from the Met Office said: "Next week is going to get significantly colder.

"At the moment we have high pressure which is gradually moving further north and will pass over Northern Ireland in the next couple of days.

"When it reaches Scandinavia - which it will do on Saturday/Sunday - it will direct the air from Siberia and Russia across the UK and Northern Ireland.

"We are expecting next week to have much colder temperatures than you have had recently and much colder than you would normally get at the end of February/March."

Mr Bowles added: "The air will be coming from a very cold place - Siberia.

Winter weatherWinter weather
Winter weather

"We will not have the same temperatures as Siberia but we will have cold temperatures."

He said we will see "a reasonably long cold spell".

"We are expecting all of next week and the first week of March to be pretty cold.

"Normally we refer to spring starting on March 1 - but this year it will be postponed as it is going to be very cold at that time."

Winter weatherWinter weather
Winter weather

He added that Northern Ireland is "going to get snow".

"There will be snow because there is quite a showery mass coming in, mainly affecting the eastern parts of Scotland, but there will be some snow in Northern Ireland.

"There may not be a lot of snow that settles," he added.