Weather warning: 20cm of snow could hit parts of UK

Helen Chivers from the Met Office warned that the same amount of snow could fall on Saturday too, and that temperatures will not go above freezing point during the day, generally falling to between minus five and minus eight Celsius overnight.

Severe weather warnings are in place from the north of Scotland through Northern Ireland, northern England, the Midlands, East Anglia, the south and south west – with heavy snow in northern regions and widespread icy roads elsewhere.

Click here: Met Office weather warnings latest

The snowfall at the end of November was the earliest widespread snow for 17 years, according to the Met Office. Thousands of schools were forced to close, flights and trains were cancelled, and the AA said it came close to its busiest day on record with callouts peaking at almost 25,000.

AA spokesman Gavin Hill-Smith said they’ve got extra patrols for the next few days.

“As the schools start to break up from Friday, it does mean people who are having a fortnight off will start heading away, and that’s going to coincide with this bout of weather,” he said.

“We have got extra patrols out and we will have extra patrols on standby. We will have our Land Rovers out working as well.”

Network Rail confirmed it had snow ploughs on standby to clear any snow from the tracks. Last week, it emerged that two de-icing trains had been sent away for an annual service at the height of the previous cold spell.

Gatwick Airport, which was closed for two days after heavy snowfall, said it had stocked up on anti-icing agents, while Glasgow Airport had 24-hour snow teams on call.

Forecast for the weekend

Helen Chivers said that snow has already been falling over Scotland and the Scottish borders and into northern parts of England.

“It will move further south, and we’re going to see a mixture of rain, sleet and snow spreading south across England and Wales for the rest of today. As it clears away from southern England this evening, there is a possibility a couple of centimetres will stay on hilly areas, like the Berkshire Downs and North Downs.”

She added that snow showers overnight will be in western coastal areas such as Devon, Cornwall, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“For a lot of England and Wales on Friday it will be dry,” she told Channel 4 News. “So the rain we are getting today will freeze overnight, giving us ice overnight and first thing tomorrow.

“There will be heavy falls of snow across England and Wales on Saturday. It is not clear exactly where it will be, but anywhere south of the Humber should be prepared. Further north, the showers will affect the eastern coastal districts; the east side of Scotland and north-east of England in the second part of the weekend.”

And Helen Chivers warned that the weather will not get better over the next month. “We are expecting it to stay cold for the next 30 days across the UK,” she said. “The overall pattern is for the cold weather to stay with us.”

You can view the Met Office’s weather warning maps here

Why is it so cold?

Helen Chivers told Channel 4 News that the normal pattern of weather for the UK would be to have atlantic weather systems, including westerly winds breaking through. That would mean there would be mild conditions, with rain and strong winds.

“What has caused this weather is northerly and north-easterly winds which we have had since the end of November,” she explained. “And northerly winds bring us these cold conditions.”