Freezing March to dash spring hopes as snow and subzero lows to begin today

dailystar.co.uk:

Weather maps from independent forecaster WXCharts show an aggressive weather front whipping in from the Atlantic today (Wednesday 9), bringing with it snowfall of up to 2cm per hour in the afternoon.

Areas expected to see flakes include the north of Scotland and some coastal parts of Northern Ireland.Elsewhere this same movement in from the west will result in some torrential rain later in the day, with 7mm expected in western parts of Scotland and around 3mm falling per hour in the south east of England and Wales by 5pm.A more settled period to follow will then be interrupted by a sharp drop in temperatures, with lows of -3.5C coming at the midpoint of next week.The Met Office expects it to be "wet and windy in the west" and north on Wednesday, but is holding back on predicting significant amounts of snow.

The picture for next week onwards however is a more unsettled one, with their long-range forecast from Sunday 13 March to Tuesday 22 March reading: "On Sunday a band of rain is likely to erratically move from the southwest towards the northeast.

Through the start of the next week a southerly flow will likely result in a period of more unsettled conditions with showers." "The most persistent rain is expected across the south initially then across the northwest later.