Brits rocked with sudden freeze as bone-chilling -11C Arctic blast hits nation

Temperatures in the UK could plummet as low as -11C in the coming weeks according to a weather map.

A sudden stratospheric warming could produce freezing conditions similar to the Beast from the East and lead to an Arctic blast which would chill the nation.

Despite a mild February, snow and ice are forecast to sweep across Britain heading into the start of March.

READ MORE: Weather maps show snow blast across UK one day this week with '3cm per hour' flurries

Snow is set to hit Scotland and northern England at the end of February, according to forecasts, with rain predicted to fall across Northern Ireland and Wales.

The current weather forecasts to March 11 show temperatures dropping as low as -11C, with up to 10 days of the mercury dropping below zero expected heading into March.

"It’s on the radar as a watching brief," Jim Dale, a senior meteorologist at British Weather Services, told the Express.

"It is a long piece of string into March as to where any Arctic thrust will end up, but yes the sudden stratospheric warming is in motion."

A sudden stratospheric warming causes air currents to spin over the North Pole, creating a polar vortex which blasts freezing winds towards Europe.

The event is caused by air higher in the stratosphere suddenly warming, with the colder conditions interacting with the jet stream.

GB News reported a Met Office spokesperson as saying: "The term sudden stratospheric warming refers to what is observed in the stratosphere.

"A rapid warming (up to about 50C 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)."

Speaking about the Arctic thrust and where it may end up, Dale added: "It will happen somewhere but it’s the where that’s the big hole – and it's all down to luck."

The Met Office currently warn that the chances of a major sudden stratospheric warming are above 80 per cent.

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