A POLAR vortex collapse is set to send temperatures plummeting across Scotland.
Experts at the Met Office have warned the country could soon be hit by Sudden Stratospheric Warming.
Scotland is set to be hit by heavy snow[/caption]
It was the same phenomenon that caused beast from the east[/caption]
Snow is set to arrive later this month[/caption]
Despite its name, the phenomenon can actually make things colder on the ground.
It causes cold polar air to move down and bring about a big freeze for northern nations.
And it appears Scotland is set to be hit by a polar collapse later this month.
Forecasters told how there is a growing chance of a cold snap for Scotland.
A Met Office spokesperson told GB News: “The stratosphere polar vortex is now weakening rapidly.
“Over the last few days, the forecasts have become very confident and we are almost certain there will be a sudden stratospheric warming in mid-March.
“This is when the mid stratospheric wind is predicted to reverse from westerly to easterly.”
Stratospheric warming has been responsible for several extreme weather events to hit Scotland.
It was responsible for the huge snow storms in 2010 and 2013.
It also sparked the ‘beast from the east’ in 2018.
And weather maps site WXCHARTS has predicted when the cold air will arrive.
Temperatures are set to hit 0C around the Central Belt and lowlands while the north will plummet to a bone-chilling -6C.
It shows the polar system moving in from the west on March 19.
A rain system will come before the snowflakes, breezing across the north and most of the Central Belt on the Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
What is a Sudden Stratospheric Warming?
In recent years some extreme cold, winter snow events have all been connected to the surface effects of sudden stratospheric warmings, such as those in 2009-10, 2013, and ‘the beast from the east’ in 2018.
You may be asking why it is called a warming then, if it lead to cold conditions?
The term sudden stratospheric warming refers to what is observed in the stratosphere:- a rapid warming (up to about 50 °C in just a couple of days), between 10 km and 50 km above the earth’s surface.
This is so high up that we don’t feel the ‘warming’ ourselves. However, usually a few weeks later, we can start to see knock-on effects on the jet stream, which in turn effects our weather lower down (in the troposphere).
However, the stratospheric sudden warming doesn’t happen every year, and it doesn’t always affect our weather when it does.
Source: Met Office
By the afternoon on March 20, snow will be blanketing all of northern Scotland.
An area around Inverness and Moray will have some of the heaviest flurries in the north, with over 1cm of snow falling every hour.
The snow system will then start to move south.
Edinburgh and the Lothians are expected to be blasted by over 2cm of snow each hour.
Weather charts have predicted when the snow will arrive[/caption]
Western parts of the country including Glasgow, Argyll, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire are all expected to get light dustings.
Into Thursday night the lowlands will be hit with snow, with heavier snowfall in the borders.
It will only be a short burst of snow for Scotland, with a system of high pressure following the cold snap and push away any remaining snow.
