by Emma Grove

As the temperatures take a dip, the Island's very own weather oracle has forecast a covering of snow by the weekend.

Darren Prescott monitors the weather from a station at his home in Bay View and says the outlook for the next few days is a wintry one.

He predicted it would start feeling colder yesterday (Wednesday) and by this afternoon (Thursday) there will be sleety showers.

A weather report compiled by Darren on Monday said that there would be snow flurries on and off tomorrow (Friday).

But an updated report from him on Tuesday said the cold had backed off slightly so it is more likely to be a few showers with a wintry mix of sleet, wet snow and rain tomorrow.

However, by Saturday, a covering of snow is likely - Darren forecast about 1cm over the hills near Eastchurch and Minster with temperatures of 4C by the coast and 1C or 2C in the centre of the Island.

He is predicting frequent snow showers for Sunday which will lead to more snow settling inland, as well as a dusting of about 1cm right on the coast.

The cold spell will continue into Monday and snow showers will carry on throughout the day and temperatures could reach 0C.

Darren, who has been interested in the weather since heavy snowfalls in the 1980s, said the reason for the chilly snap is that the jet stream (the belt of winds high in the atmosphere that drives our weather) has moved to the south of us, a thousand miles away from its usual position.

He said as long as it holds, it will stay cold and snowy.

The 31-year-old said: "Last year was an anomaly - the coldest winter in 30 years over the UK as a whole - but we escaped lightly as there were no ice days, no icicles, no 10ft drifts.

"We've not seen those since 1995 and I'm sure we'll see them again some day.

"Nobody can say what this winter holds but if it carries on as it did last winter it'll be pretty interesting."