UK weather maps turn icy blue to reveal exact date brutal -1C Arctic blast hits

Chilling new weather charts reveal the UK soon faces an icy-blue deep freeze - with parts of Britain set to plunge to a sub-zero -1C. And a heat map for Europe shows that while southern parts of the continent are amber warm for mid-autumn, the UK and Scandinavia glaringly stand out as wintry dark blue.

The first named UK storm of the season, Storm Amy, is expected to blast Britain this weekend with powerful gusts and rain pouring in from the Atlantic. But after Amy has blown away new WXCharts.com maps reveal that we face a deep freeze in a fortnight's time on October 16th.

The big chill will mainly focus on Scotland, with the heart of the lowest sub-zero temperatures around Fort William and Inverness in the Highlands.

The Met Office long range weather forecast from Wednesday 15th October onwards reads: "The latter half of October will probably see a transition to more widely unsettled conditions once more.

"Whether this takes the form of successive depressions steaming in from the Atlantic or a rather slower evolving weather pattern remains to be seen, but there is a greater chance of more places seeing more frequent spells of rain and possibly strong winds.

"Temperatures probably remaining close to average overall, but with a reduced incidence of chilly nights compared to earlier in the month."

It will follow the first named UK storm of the season - Storm Amy - which is expected to hit the UK on Friday and Saturday, the Met Office has confirmed.

Amy will move to the north-west of the United Kingdom bringing gusts up to 80mph (129 km/h). Gales are expected widely with heavy rain.

Met Office yellow severe weather warnings for wind and rain have been issued from 12pm Friday to 11.59pm Saturday.

Thursday will bring a spell of wet and windy weather across Northern Ireland, Scotland and western parts of England and Wales.

Rain spreads in from the west, turning particularly heavy in western Scotland where there's a yellow Met Office warning in force until midnight.

Rainfall totals will be building with 30-50mm (1-2in) widely but up to 80mm (3in) in the north-west and over high ground.

During Friday afternoon Storm Amy will move close to Scotland with heavy rain and strong winds building across the UK leading to significant impacts for some.

The main area of rain will eventually move away to the south-east of the UK in the early hours of Saturday morning.

But though Saturday will still be very windy, there will be a mixture of sunny spells and showers.

Most of these showers will come in across northern and western parts of the UK.

By Sunday, Storm Amy will have moved further out into the North Sea so it will be drier with lighter winds for the second half of the weekend.