Turning Wintry in places tonight

During much of Saturday, showers of rain/sleet/snow will march eastwards. Most of these will fall as rain to low ground, whereas over the Scottish Highlands some significant snowfall is likely. Temperatures will remain on the cold side, highs of around 1 to 7C North to South.

However, as we head towards this evening, a more organized (persistent) area of rain/sleet/snow is likely to develop across Wales. This could produce accumulations of snow, even to lower levels, as it heads over into parts of the North Midlands and Northern England tonight. It may start snowing in some of these areas by around 9 or 10pm. Indeed, not everywhere will see the snow, it is likely to be patchy in nature.  However, some lower level areas (between 100 and 250 metres) could see 2-5cm of snow, locally. This risk is highest for the North Midlands, so Shropshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire and parts of Eastern Cumbria. This messy mix is likely to continue throughout the night, and some disruption is now deemed likely over the trans pennine routes into Sunday morning, where here up to 10cms (4 ins) of snow are possible by Sunday morning.

Here is our UK Snow Risk Map for tonight.

To the south of this area, i.e. for the South Midlands and Southern England, you can just expect rain showers, maybe a bit of wet snow mixed in over high ground. And to the north, so Scotland, you can expect cold conditions, with continued wintry showers. At times these wintry showers may merge to produce more persistent areas of rain and sleet, and snow to high ground. Some significant snowfall is possible over the central hills of Scotland and Northern Ireland.


For all, though, it will be a cold night tonight with temperatures dipping close to or below freezing, so be aware of the risk of some ice on untreated roads and surfaces to start Sunday. And, of course, be aware of the risk of some wintry precipitation (sleet/snow) over the Northern half of the country tonight, especially so for the areas highlighted.