Snow could make for hazardous road conditions

Snow is most likely in Scotland and eastern England but south-east England, north Wales, the Midlands and Northern Ireland may also be hit from Thursday.

Snow, sleet and hail is expected with gale force icy winds and wind chill temperatures as low as -10C (14F).

Snow in November is "unusual, but not unheard of", the Met Office says.

The forecast follows days of freezing conditions across the UK and warnings of hazardous driving conditions due to dense fog.

Nowhere 'immune'

Spokesman John Hammond said the chance of seeing snow was greater further north and on higher ground, where, coupled with gale force or severe gale force icy winds, it was going to make for "an interesting end to the working week", with potentially dangerous conditions on the roads.

But even on lower ground, several centimetres of snow could fall and nowhere in the UK was "immune" between Thursday and Saturday.

Daytime temperatures are expected to be around 2C (36F) to 4C (39F), dropping below freezing at night.

The cold weather is being brought by an icy blast from the Arctic which will sweep south on Thursday, bringing rain, sleet, hail and snow first to Scotland and then to the rest of the country.

The Met Office is predicting a colder and drier than average winter for the UK with more frequent cold snaps.

But Mr Hammond said it was too early to tell whether this week's weather was the start of a severe winter.

He said: "It's been feeling cooler in the last few days because we started November with above average temperatures and it has now dropped to something closer to normal."

The last time winter temperatures dropped below the UK average was 10 years ago in 1995/6.