Will the icy blast give way to more rain?

The cold weather has come as a shock to the system after the wet of January and February so far. BBC Weather's Sarah Keith-Lucas explains why there's been a sudden change in our weather.

The two big drivers influencing it so far this year have been the jet stream and a huge area of blocking high pressure which has been sitting over central and eastern Europe.

The high pressure has forced the jet stream to drift as far south as Spain and Portugal bringing repeated wet weather to these areas as well as to parts of the UK.

That high pressure is now starting to move allowing other weather patterns to develop.