The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning with snow and ice forecast for towns and cities across the UK.
Greater London, Newcastle, Blackpool, Bristol, Cardiff, York and Greater Manchester are just a few of the cities included in the Met Office warning which starts at midday on Saturday and lasts until Sunday night.
A weather map generated by WX Charts using MetDesk data on Friday (January 3) shows snow confined to higher ground on Saturday morning, with depths of 17cm in parts of the Scottish Highlands.
But another map shows snow spreading, with 2cm of snow falling per hour over Cardiff and up to 1cm per hour in Birmingham at 6pm on Saturday. Norwich, Manchester and Newcastle look set to see none at all at that time though.
However, at midday on Sunday, Newcastle is set for some 6cm of snow per hour and Birmingham 3cm while rain is set to fall over London, Southampton and Plymouth, according to WX Charts.
The maps also show an Atlantic front forecast by the Met Office which the forecaster said will move across parts of central and southern Britain over the weekend.
Milder, moisture-laden air is due to mix with already cold conditions bringing snow to some places before possibly turning to rain in the south.
Though there is some uncertainty over which areas will see disruptive snow, parts of Wales, the North of England and the Midlands are most likely to see some impacts, according to the Met Office.
The forecaster has said in those places 5cm or more could fall, with as much as 20-30cm over high ground, including Wales and the Pennines.
Snow risk maps generated on Friday by Netweather show at 6am on Sunday there’s a near 100% chance of snow in southern Scotland and the Pennines. The risk around Leeds is also high, somewhere between 75% and 90%, according to Netweather.
A third map generated by WX Charts on Friday shows snow depths of 1-2cm over Glasgow and Edinburgh at 9am on Monday while some 8cm of snow per hour set to fall over Greater Manchester.
However, London, Southampton, Plymouth, Reading, Bath and Bristol look set to be clear of snow at the same time, according to WX Charts.
Meanwhile, UK Health Security Agency cold weather health alerts for all of England are in place ahead of a week of low temperatures.
Amber alerts were issued on Thursday and will run until January 8, meaning a rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions, is likely.
Dan Stroud, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said conditions should become warmer by the end of this weekend before cold weather strikes again early next week.
He said: “The second half of the weekend should be in the high singles or low doubles (for temperature figures). But temperatures will dive again next week, particularly on Monday and Tuesday.
“They should start to improve towards the latter end of the week. But there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge until then.”
At the time of writing, Met Office warnings are in place for snow and ice on Friday across parts of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and northern England.
