Maps show most parts of the country will be blighted by rain and snow storms with the white stuff forecast to fall in a 446-mile-long belt from the Highlands down to the Midlands
Brits will be hit by a 2cm an hour Arctic blast but one location in the country will be spared the blustery conditions.
New maps from WXCharts, which uses Met desk data, show a roughly 446 mile-long snow storm blighting the country from 12am on March 20. The first country affected by the snow and rain storms is Northern Ireland that will see as much as 2cm of the white stuff near Armagh and rain falling elsewhere.
The maps show as much as 2cm will fall on Scotland’s west coast by 6am, Cumbria and the Pennines down to the northern Midlands. Those who avoid the white stuff will instead be hammered by showers, according to the maps. At the same time, as much as 3cm of rain will fall each hour in Somerset, southern Wales, the island of Anglesey with less rain falling in the rest of Wales, the west Midlands, the South West, Lincolnshire and southern England.
By 12pm much of the snow storm has come to an end with the exception of the Highlands just west of Inverness. Rain clouds that blanketed the South West continue to move east, dumping about 0.8cm of water onto parts of East Anglia and the South East.
By 12am on March 21, much of the storms have left the UK with a thin band hovering over northern Scotland. The only region set to dodge both showers and snow storms in western Scotland, according to the maps.
The Met Office said less settled conditions will present themselves from next week. In its forecast from March 15 to March 24, a Met Office spokesperson said: “The weekend will continue on a cool theme, but with the high pressure to the north becoming more dominant it should lead to a reduction in shower activity seen on previous days.
“So there should be a good deal of dry weather with plenty of sunshine by day, but still some noticeably chilly nights with frost fairly widespread. The odd fog patch is possible in the north, and a brisk breeze across the south will make it feel notably chilly here on Saturday.
“Next week is likely to see a gradual transition to less settled conditions as the high likely withdraws to the east. So rain or showers at times, mostly focussed across the south, the north perhaps staying largely dry and it is also likely to become much milder.”
