The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for heavy rain across parts of Wales and England, while temperatures could drop below freezing as a cold snap moves in – leading to potential snowfall.
Earlier this week, the UK was enjoying the end of a spell of unseasonably warm weather for October – but forecasters are warning unsettled and colder conditions will see temperatures plunge with the risk of overnight frost and snow.
It comes after the warmest October day in five years was recorded on Sunday, as temperatures hit 25.8C (78.4F) in Kew Gardens, west London – just days after major flooding in Scotland.
The Met Office said the rain warning applies to Wales and much of central and southern England and will be in force from 9pm on Thursday until midnight on Friday.
Image: The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for rain across much of England and Wales from 9pm on Thursday to midnight on Friday
Around two inches of rain may fall and bring flooding to homes, make road conditions more hazardous and impact public transport, it warned.
Temperatures in English cities will drop to as low as 2C (35.6F) when the colder air moves in at the end of the week, but it could fall to as low as -3C (26.6F) in rural northern areas.
Sky News weather producer Chris England, said: “Heavy rain moving through England and Wales on Friday will clear by the weekend, with a cold northerly wind setting in.
“That’ll bring much colder conditions, with quite extensive overnight frosts in the north and daytime temperatures in mid-single figures.
Advertisement
“There will be increasingly wintry showers in the north as well, with snow on the hills and perhaps to lower levels in the far North East by Saturday evening, but most places will be dry by the end of Sunday.”
Twitter
This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.
The Met Office said the cold conditions will be a “shock” for some areas.
Spokesman Grahame Madge said: “On Wednesday night, there may potentially be some frosts and much colder than average conditions, which might be a shock for northern parts of Britain because we’ve had this relatively warm air across most of the UK.
“There will be an increasing tendency towards cooler conditions, however in the southern parts of England and Wales we’ve got the prospect of heavy rain coming in.
“We’re saying there is a significant rain warning from 9pm on Thursday through to midnight on Friday, and we can expect 20 to 30mm in some places in a couple of hours.
“Even up to 50, 60 or possibly up to 70mm across the high ground of Wales, these are significant amounts.
“Once that warning expires, we’ve got another shift in our weather pattern where we’re getting a more northerly flow coming in.
“That will introduce much cooler conditions, six degrees below average, which given the fact a few days ago we were talking about conditions six or so degrees above average, will feel like a marked contrast.
“We’ve got the prospect on Saturday of early frost in some sheltered northern areas, even some snowfall over the Scottish mountains,” he added.
“While we had hoped to bring Mr Doughty’s family better news, we are thankful to be able to provide them with some closure,” said special agent Kristin Rehler.
“This discovery is the direct result of our partnerships and special agents from FBI Jacksonville’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST), who were relentless in their efforts to narrow down potential search locations.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said Runcorn needs a new Labour MP after Mike Amesbury was jailed for beating up a constituent – and will keep his £91,000 MPs salary in prison.
She told Wilfred Froston Sky News Breakfast: “Whether it is resigning or through recall, everyone’s clear – the people of Runcorn deserve better representation, and that would come by having a newly elected MP.”
Amesbury, who has been an MP since 2017, remains as the MP for Runcorn and Helsby after being jailed for 10 weeks on Monday.
He had at an earlier hearing pleaded guilty to assaulting Paul Fellows, 45 by punching him to the ground and hitting him five more times in Frodsham, Cheshire, after a night out last October.
He has not resigned, despite calls for him to do so.
The 55-year-old MP will keep receiving his £91,000 salary while in prison because parliamentary rules state a recall petition, which kickstarts a by-election, can only happen once an appeal period for a custodial sentence of a year or less is exhausted.
Amesbury’s lawyer stated in court he would be appealing the 10-week sentence, of which the MP will serve four weeks in HMP Altcourse in Liverpool.
There is also no mechanism to stop pay for MPs, unless they are suspended from the House of Commons, which has not yet happened for Amesbury.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:16
CCTV shows Labour MP punch man
Ms Cooper added: “It’s completely unacceptable what has happened. No matter who you are. No one is above the law.”
On whether the government is considering changing the law so MPs who receive a prison sentence can no longer serve as an MP, Ms Cooper said: “I think these are matters, obviously, for the parliamentary authorities and processes that is separate from the decisions government make.
“But we are clear we need a new representation in Runcorn.”
Conservative shadow minister Victoria Atkins told Sky News the public and MPs have been “disgusted” by Amesbury keeping his job and called for the rules to be changed.
“I find it extraordinary that someone can claim their salary from their prison cell when their job is to be here in parliament, representing their constituents,” she said.
“I think the government needs to look at this and we will look at these measures very, very carefully, whatever they bring forward.
“I share the public’s disgust that a Labour MP is sitting in prison, serving a prison sentence because he beat up a constituent.”
After the judge left the courtroom in Chester on Monday, following sentencing, Amesbury’s lawyer asked for him to return and requested bail while he appealed the sentence.
Judge Tan Ikram returned to the court, sat down, paused briefly and said: “Application refused.”
The head of NHS England has announced she is standing down.
Amanda Pritchard was the first woman to take on the role in 2021, having previously served as NHS England’s chief operating officer, and before that, the former head of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
Her decision to step down comes weeks after MPs on the cross-party Commons public accounts and health and social care committees accused her of lacking the “drive and dynamism” to radically reform the service.
It has been a “hugely difficult decision for me to stand down”, she said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I believe now is the right time – with the NHS making continued progress in our recovery, and with the foundations firmly in place to deliver the 10 Year Health Plan.”
She said it had been “an enormous privilege to lead the NHS in England through what has undoubtedly been the most difficult period in its history”.
“The NHS is full of extraordinary people, who do extraordinary things every day for patients,” she said, adding: “I am confident they will continue to achieve incredible things for patients now, and into the future.”
Image: Ms Pritchard giving evidence to MPs in the House of Commons earlier this month. Pic: PA
MPs on the health and social care committee earlier this month said they were disappointed and frustrated by the “lengthy and diffuse answers” Ms Pritchard and other officials gave them under questioning.
Last week, she admitted “we’re not all brilliant performers at committee hearings” as she was challenged on the issue on BBC Breakfast.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Ms Pritchard could be “enormously proud” of her tenure.
He said: “Amanda can be enormously proud of the leadership she has given in the face of the biggest health emergency for our country in modern history, as well as steering NHS England during turbulent political waters and six secretaries of state in her time as chief executive.
“She has led with integrity and unwavering commitment.”
NHS England said that having discussed everything with Mr Streeting in recent months – and now that the NHS has “turned a corner on recovery from the pandemic and the foundations are in place to make the necessary changes to the centre to best support the wider NHS” – Ms Pritchard had “decided now is the right time to stand down”.
Sir James Mackey will take over as “transition” chief executive from the first of April on a secondment basis, it said.
He is the chief executive of Newcastle Hospitals Foundation Trust and national director of elective recovery.
Ms Pritchard, who is married with three children and studied modern history at St Anne’s College, Oxford, was also deputy chief executive at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust.