Met Office warns Hampshire could see snow and sleet showers in icy cold snap

The news comes as a number of yellow warnings for ice and snow are now in place across large areas of Scotland and Northern Ireland and stretch down into North Yorkshire.

The coldest weather is still expected in north west Scotland overnight on Thursday where temperatures could drop to an icy minus 10C (14F).

Alex Burkill, meteorologist at the Met Office, said that the ‘most significant snow’ was likely to fall in England, in Cumbria and the Pennines – where areas above 400m could see up to 10cm.

‘That’s a significant amount of snow especially this early in December,’ he said.

‘The snowiest months are usually a bit later into winter, January and February and also it’s very early in December at the moment.’

The Met Office said the cold spell is expected to last until Friday but that the weekend would see brighter weather and even some sunshine.

It added that temperatures going into next week would be lower than the average annual temperature, which is usually around 7-9C.

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