UK weather: Blast of warmth will boost temperature to double figures next week as Britain recovers from devastating Storm Goretti

The next storm system lined up in the Atlantic will arrive laden with moist, mild air providing the ingredients for the next rain, sleet and snow blast.

A skirmish between westerly and northerly winds will keep Britain in the crosshairs of foul weather into mid-January.

Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin said: “On Sunday, an area of low pressure brings a broad swathe of mild air in from the Atlantic, and weather fronts will bring moisture, and the question is when it hits the colder air, will we see some further snowfall.

“According to the Met Office weather model, we keep the milder air on Monday and into Tuesday, but other model runs show us many other things, and there is a scrap between the cold air and that milder and wetter air trying to push in.

“Whether the milder air wins or the colder air sticks around is the big battleground, and where they clash there is the potential for more snow, and perhaps heavy snow and we still have that same scrap going on for much of next week.”

Warnings come as the nation reels from what is likely to be the worst storm for a year, after Storm Goretti tore in.

Thousands of homes were without power with warnings in force for wind, rain and snow.

However, a weekend U-turn will be triggered by the jet stream and "fragmenting" off the west coast.

A calmer jet will give a slower ride to low-pressure storm systems heading in on the tail of Goretti.

Bitterly cold weather, however, shows no signs of budging over the next couple of days, Deakin warned.

He said: “Into the weekend, things calm down, but there is another area of low pressure bringing some gusty winds to the north of Scotland and potentially some more snowfall.

“The jet stream next week is pretty active out in the Atlantic, but close to the UK, it is fragmented and weakened which means that our weather systems become slower moving which gives us more headaches.”

Despite milder air arriving briefly this weekend, experts warn the cold theme will hold on through January.

Jim Dale, meteorologist for British Weather Services and co-author of ‘Surviving Extreme Weather’, said: “Trying to move this cold away will be like trying to move a brick with a feather.

“There will be an ongoing risk of snow through next week and possibly beyond the middle of the month.

“All we need is showers to come in off the moist sea, and we will see more snowfall.”