It will turn milder across all parts tomorrow and through into the weekend, but for now it’s a cold start, thanks to the polar maritime airmass that arrived yesterday and clearing skies overnight. Wintry showers across the north this morning will be replaced by more persistent rain, sleet and hill snow moving in this afternoon, accompanied by strengthening winds. The south will stay mostly dry and bright. It will be less cold across the south today, then all parts will turn milder towards the end of the week, as the polar airmass is replaced by a tropical maritime airmass. Temperatures widely reaching double figures, as winds turn southwesterly on Thursday and Friday. Most will see some rain before the end of the week and it will become increasingly windy too. The unsettled but mild conditions continuing through the weekend, with a spell of wet and windy likely crossing all parts Sunday morning.

Today

For now, it’s a cold start and sunny start for many, temperatures have fallen into low single figures overnight, the brisk westerly wind keeping temperatures generally above freezing, but in some sheltered eastern areas they have dropped close to freezing locally inland, so there is some patchy frost and a risk of icy stretches on untreated wet surfaces, especially in the northwest – where showers continue, falling as snow over higher ground.

Much of England and Wales will stay dry throughout today, though after a sunny morning it will turn increasingly cloudy from the west through the afternoon, with a few showers towards western coasts. Further north, wintry showers will continue to feed in across the northwest this morning, while the east will be mostly dry and bright. But through the afternoon, a low pressure system will slide east off the Atlantic, bringing strengthening winds and outbreaks of rain and hill snow across Scotland, Northern Ireland and the far north of England. There could be up to an inch of rain across western hills here by the time the rain clears.