Personally - unless we get a couple of very hard frosts - i cant see freezing rain on the cards.

It hasnt really been THAT cold recently. i mean - yes it is very cold. 0-2*C isnt tropical. But its too marginal for the rain to raise the temperature of.  The ground around these parts - although is cold, is too warm.  Infact its still damp outside now, despite a temp of 1*c

Saying that - I have seen freezing rain today in Wales. There was snow on the floor- a good 6" of it. But there was light rain in the air. Meaning everything looke like:

Infact the roads looked like they had glass on them from where it had fallen from the trees.

HOWEVER... this was at around 400m ASL it was 0 to -1*c today.  This is not uncommon in that part of the world.

Back home or in normal lowland britain it was 1.2*c for the majority of the day - and very damp.  We had a slight frost the other day prior to the warm front running down the irish sea.  It stayed at 1.2C all day - and it didnt freeze.

I cant see these conditions changing between now and the end of the cold spell.  Cold - but not cold enough.

My thoughts exactly Russ.

It seems withdrawal from a cold spell that didn't live up to its name has somewhat quashed the mood in here.
A good time to sit out the south westerly muck until it turns interesting again.

Aristotlean advice.

We had freezing rain (courtesy of frequent showers) all last week here. But I do recall a significant, nationwide event here in Ireland back in late December 2009 when a warm front came over a frozen land. Everything turned to ice. You literally could not walk out the door without going heels over head. Dangerous weather.

18z stalls the inevitable a bit longer (still cold Thursday). Perhaps the mild breakdown will be squeezed out, just as our cold spells usually are!

amongst the muck there could be some very pleasant spring like weather too.

cold very much retreating eastwards

GFS at T156 has low pressure pushing south eastwards across the Atlantic towards Spain / Azores which was the precursor to pressure rising over Scandanvia on the 12z JMA and ECM! 👍

Edit: Not this time but markedly different to the 12z at this stage and a potential step in the right direction. Let's see what the ensembles think!

True freezing rain occurs when a warmer inversion aloft melts snow allowing it to fall to the ground as rain despite surface temperatures, including the air is at or below freezing. This is what happened here back in the 90's. Temperatures were below freezing all day with incessant rain with solid ice build up on all surfaces. Very nasty stuff and I hope we avoid it.