Live weather maps reveal a 200-mile ice bomb set to blast the UK in a few hours.
WXCharts has forecast snow to hit the UK this weekend (Sunday 22), bringing with it rain and low temperatures.
Snow will be heaviest in central Scotland (Fort William, Tyndrum), the Scottish borders and the north of England (Galloway, Dumfries, Lake District, Carlisle).
There will also be snow in west Scotland (Ullapool, Skye, Mull), the north of England and the midlands (Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham).
Rain will follow behind the snow, hitting Northern Ireland (Derry, Belfast), the south of England and Wales (Plymouth, Cardiff), the south of England (London, Oxford) and East Anglia (Norwich, Ipswich).
Temperatures will drop as low as -1C in central Scotland, the rest of Scotland will see lows of 0C. The north of England will sit between 0C and 2C, the midlands Northern Ireland and Wales between 1C and 3C and the south coast between 3C and 4C.
The Met Office said of the period: “A band of rain moving southeastwards through the day. Turning showery behind in the west but easing through the evening. Fresh winds with temperature turning milder once again.
“Increasingly windy through the weekend with gale force winds in the north with some wintry showers. Temperatures staying mild for December but settling down by Monday.”
The start of this outlook sees the onset of a relatively prolonged period of settled weather, as an area of high pressure becomes established across much of the UK, probably centred over or just to the south of England.
Early on, this will confine spells of rain and wind to the northwest of Scotland, though rain could become quite persistent here for a time.
Later on, it may become settled in the northwest too, but confidence in the position of the north/south boundary between settled and unsettled steadily lowers through the period.
Becoming widely mild, perhaps exceptionally so in some places, but also often fairly cloudy, although clearer spells overnight may lead to localised frost and fog.
