Met Office issues 16-hour ice warning for 23 areas as temperatures plunge - full list

Detailed summary

A weather warning for ice has been issued by the Met Office as the UK is hit by an Arctic blast with the cold snap expected to last several days

Brits are being warned of snow and ice in a Met Office weather alert for 23 areas as the country faces an Arctic blast.

The national weather agency has issued a yellow warning for ice as cold northerly air moves southwards today and it comes into affect at 6am.

The weather warning runs until 10am on Monday and covers most of Scotland as well as a large swathe of northern England.

The UK is in the midst of a cold snap with temperatures dropping to -6.4C in Cumbria and Brecon last Thursday - and more wintry conditions predicted over the course of this week.

"An area of rain and hill snow (snow mainly above 200 m but not expected to be impactful) will clear to the southeast tonight with skies then at least partially clearing," states the Met Office warning.

"This will result in temperatures falling below freezing and some icy stretches developing on untreated surfaces. This is likely to lead to difficult driving conditions. These conditions will probably not develop across northern England and southeast Scotland until the end of the night.

"Across northern Scotland, icy conditions are likely to be exacerbated by some wintry showers, with snow falling to low levels for a time before becoming mainly confined to higher ground late in the night. No more than 1-2 cm is likely at lower levels, with higher ground perhaps seeing up to 4 or 5 cm from these wintry showers."

Met Office maps also show snow running horizontally across the UK, through northern Wales and England from midnight on Monday into the early hours of Tuesday. This band then moves northwards and eastwards through the night before breaking up.

BBC weather forecaster Helen Willetts says: "We can see that northerly wind coming back in later in the day pushing those weather fronts out of the way by the start of Monday and we are back into that sparkling Arctic air.

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