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OK, it’s been Christmas, and after New Year everything feels a bit… bleak. Really the only thing that can be in any way magical after the festive season is a good sprinkling of snow, and when we say Manchester is in for a blanket of the white stuff in early January, we mean it.
The Met Office has issued its 10-day forecast, with the North West set to see freezing temperatures in the coming weeks.
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The Met Office forecast for the North West, including Greater Manchester, is as follows:
This evening and tonight (29 December):
Generally cloudy to start this evening, but clearer spells developing more widely through the night. Remaining dry but turning colder with a frost in places. Minimum temperature -1 °C.
Tuesday (30 December):
Largely fine and dry with plenty of sunny spells after a cold and frosty start. Light winds and turning very cold overnight with a widespread frost and fog patches. Maximum temperature 6 °C.
Outlook for Wednesday (31 December) to Friday (2 January):
Remaining generally dry to end 2025 with sunny spells. Turning even colder from New Year’s Day with an increased risk of wintry showers and a brisk northwesterly wind. Frosts overnight.
And the wintry showers don’t stop there. Forecast website WX Charts plots the likelihood that parts of the UK will see snow in early January, and brace yourselves, because we see a couple of snow days in our future.
Credit: WX Charts
The morning of Friday 2 January will see the first of the snow, with the south and south west of Manchester, around Altrincham, Knutsford and Warrington, gathering the most, around 2cm per hour. The snow moves upward to cover the city centre and areas west of Manchester on 6 January, with areas of Wales and Lancashire also seeing some snow falling.
Then, we get to 7 January, when a large band of light snow is set to fall all along the west of England, covering the entirety of Wales, over Manchester and up to Scotland. The snow then continues, getting gradually heavier throughout the night, and we should see a good 4cm per hour in Manchester – but we’ll be keeping an eye on the forecast to see if it’s set to continue further.
Credit: WX Charts
As always, have fun and stay safe out there in the cold and snow – do keep up to date with your local weather forecast and check before you travel.