After it's very brief break, winter has returned with a vengeance during the last 24 hours. It all occurred as a cold front ran south with Arctic air tucking in behind it - temperatures fell away several degrees in the space of an hour as it happened, with a lot of the rain turning to snow, and what had fallen freezing and making for some very icy roads and pavements overnight and this morning.
With the front now cleared, the snow showers have been packing in, with coastal regions in the northern half of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales the main focus, and these will continue through today. Some of the showers will make it well inland, with the midlands, southwest England and Northwest England likely spots to see at least a few. Further east it's drier but still bitterly cold with perhaps just the odd shower grazing the coast at times.
Temperatures today are unlikely to rise above freezing for much of the country, and will dip down well below zero overnight.
Into tomorrow (Saturday), the showers continue, and are likely to become more widespread across the southern half of the country as low pressure swings in close by. Still a little uncertainty over it's precise track but at the current time, southern counties look likely to see some persistent, heavy snow moving through.
Sunday sees a virtual repeat performance, although the low pressure may move further north, pulling some milder air with it momentarily, so snow may turn to rain before turning back to snow again as it moves away.
All in all it's a wintry picture and will remain cold with further snow at times into next week.
Will it be a white Christmas?
There is still a lot of uncertainty over the weather for the Christmas period, the
Christmas forecast is being updated daily from now right up until the 24th to give you the latest news.
