Arctic air has arrived for Easter Monday bringing a biting wind chill, along with some snow. It'll stay cold tomorrow ahead of a brief warm-up midweek before colder air returns from the north later.
Easter Sunday saw temperatures reach 17.9c in Pershore (Worcestershire), today with much colder air sweeping south, it'll be pretty good going to reach 7c. The air, which is blowing down directly from the Arctic is cold enough to bring snow with it, with flurries even affecting southern and central England this morning and whiteout conditions for parts of Scotland.
The cold front bringing the outbreaks of mostly light rain, sleet and snow will clear the south of England by around lunchtime, leaving the whole of the country in a similarly cold boat. There'll be a noticeable wind chill with snow and hail showers affecting the northern half of Scotland and close to coasts exposed to the north or northwest wind. But, inland barring a few showers here and there, it'll be mostly dry with sunny spells breaking through. The sun has some strength to it at this time of year, so it'll help to take the edge off of the chill, but even so with temperatures not reaching much better than 4-7c in the main, and the wind knocking several degrees from those numbers, it'll still feel cold enough.
This evening and overnight, snow showers will continue to affect the northern half of Scotland and other exposed coastal regions, Wales is also likely to get more in on the act as well. Elsewhere, with clearer skies temperatures will drop away quickly with a widespread and in places hard frost forming.
Tuesday keeps the UK and Ireland in the cold flow, with more sleet, snow and hail showers blowing in on the north to northwest wind. Inland, it'll often be dry again with sunny periods, but the showers may become more widespread at times.
Another cold night will follow, with a sharp frost and a continuation of those showers near to the western and northern coasts in particular. Then, Wednesday will see high pressure just nosing in from the west, which will begin to cut off the flow of Arctic air with the winds also easing from the west as the day wears on. Along the boundary of the colder and milder air masses there is likely to be a relatively weak warm front working in from the west bringing some outbreaks of rain with some sleet and snow possible for a time overnight and first thing. In the main, away from western and some central regions though, it should stay mostly dry, with the showers across Northern Scotland easing during the day.
With lighter winds, it'll feel milder than of late too, with highs potentially getting into double-figures in some southern and eastern parts. The average high for April is generally 10-13c, so still down on that for many though.
By Thursday, the warm front will have cleared through, so temperatures will be up another notch across England and Wales, with highs potentially touching into the teens in places, especially if the sunshine can come out for any length of time in amongst a fair bit of cloud. For Scotland, with low pressure nearby, it'll be a blustery day with a band of potentially heavy rain moving down from the northwest. Behind the rain, there'll be sunshine and showers and with colder air tucking in again as the front bringing the rain moves through, those showers are going to increasingly fall as sleet and snow.
The rain will continue to move south through the remainder of Thursday and into Friday, with a renewed feed of colder air pushing down from the north behind it. It's not looking quite a potent as the cold blast from today, but even so, winter is set to have another nibble, if not bite.