The UK is to feel the effects of the US bomb cyclone that has battered parts of North America as the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for heavy rain in Scotland.
The warning is in effect from 3am on Friday 30th December for 15 hours in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling.
The rain, wind and warmer temperatures are being brought to UK shores as a result of the extreme cold weather associated with the bomb cyclone seen in North America.
Heavy rain could bring some flooding and travel disruption, the UK weather service said, but the impact will be nowhere near as significant as experienced in the US.
The UK will experience unsettled conditions with spells of wet and windy weather for seven to 10 days as an air current, or jet stream, circling the Earth strengthens due to the arctic blizzards raging across the pond.
Dozens have been killed in the bomb cyclone that encased houses in ice, cancelled thousands of flights and left thousands without electricity.
How can the weather in the US affect the UK?
The bomb cyclone is only affecting the UK due to its impact on the North Atlantic jet stream.
The jet stream is a core of strong winds around five to seven miles above the Earth’s surface, blowing from west to east.
“What effect (the bomb cyclone) has had is to strengthen the jet stream because the jet stream is basically driven by temperature differences,” Met Office meteorologist Simon Partridge said.
“So the starker the difference in temperature between the northern edge of it and southern edge, the stronger the jet stream becomes.”
Thursday is forecast to be colder than Wednesday, with sunshine and some heavy showers in northern Scotland and western England, with a risk of hail and thunder.
Read more:
What is a bomb cyclone?
Thursday will be a “cooler feeling day”, Mr Partridge said, “still rather windy and with showers” across the UK, while Friday to Sunday is forecast to be unsettled, with snow over the Highlands, showers and rain in southern England, and frosts and fog overnight.
Friday is expected to bring wet and windy weather with milder temperatures.
“So the general sort of knock-on effect of the weather in the US is that in general the UK is going to be a little bit milder than it would normally be at this time of year,” Mr Partridge added.
