UK weather: Cold front could bring snow on Friday night

The UK will be faced with wet weather on Friday as frequent, heavy showers and a cold front sweep across the country, with snow possible in some parts.

Air will descend from Greenland to the UK from the Atlantic, bringing a cold front which will quickly move across the UK. This cold front will be a “lively feature,” according to the Met Office’s Aidan McGivern, and will bring a very wet and windy snap for parts of the UK.

Mr McGivern added that “all of a sudden it will turn very wet and windy,” which will only last for about half an hour. Temperatures will drop by around three degrees as we go through Friday and the cold air rushes through, reaching East Anglia and the southeast by mid afternoon.

This will mean showers for southeastern parts of the UK by Friday evening, while the rest of the UK will experience drier and brighter spells.

However, there will be a considerable number of showers due to unstable conditions as cold weather fronts arrive above a much less cold sea. This will mean hail, thunder and lightning across the country as well as rain, with heaviest showers in the northwest. Some sleet may even fall at lower levels and snow could be seen over the hills in Scotland and northern England.

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Daytime temperatures on Friday will range from 7C to 8C but will feel much colder and more like 2C to 5C, due to wind chill.

Rain showers will continue to sweep across the UK as we move into the weekend, with the possibility of some lower lying areas experiencing sleet and snow. As much as 10cm of snow could fall about 300m in parts of Scotland.

Temperatures on Saturday morning may be as low as 2C, with a frosty start expected for much of the north. These will rise as the day goes on, with highs of 11C forecast.

Clouds will clear as the weekend begins with sunshine for many, especially in central and eastern areas. Western parts of England, Northern Ireland and parts of Wales may experience some showers on Saturday afternoon with patchy rain moving into western parts of Scotland later on.

More rain will move into the west of the country on Sunday, with the rest of the weekend looking slightly unsettled.