HEAVY snow warnings have been issued for parts of northern Scotland as the UK braces itself for a chilly Easter weekend.
The Met Office said that no part of the country would be “immune” from snowfall on Easter Monday as the temperatures continue to drop.
The colder weather coincides with the easing of coronavirus restrictions across the country and police have urged people to continue to respect the rules.
Parts of Scotland including Fife, Strathclyde and Highlands are due to see gale-force winds and snow showers that could cause travel disruption.
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There could be as much as 15cm of snow in higher areas and temperatures may drop as low as minus 5C (23F) on Easter Monday morning.
The Met Office’s yellow warnings are in place from 6pm on Sunday until midnight on Monday.
It comes as the stay-at-home order was lifted across Scotland today, allowing people to travel locally for non-essential purposes.
Craig Snell, forecaster for the Met Office, said: “After a taste of summer for a lot of the UK we will see things turn much colder as we go through the second half of the Easter weekend.
“A lot of the UK will be prone to seeing some wintry showers as we go through the course of Monday but northern Scotland is where we’ll see the heaviest and most frequent snow.
“That’s where there’s most concern that we might see some disruption.”
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Snell said although it was not unusual to see snow at this time of year, it would be a “shock to the system” for many, following the almost record-breaking March temperatures felt earlier in the week.
Parts of the UK saw temperatures reach nearly 24C (75.2F) on Wednesday, with Weybourne, north Norfolk, leading the way at a peak of 23.9C (75F) – short of the nation’s hottest-ever March temperature of 25.6C (78F), which was recorded in 1968 at Mepal in Cambridgeshire.
The Met Office said temperatures would decline steadily across the UK and by Monday most parts would struggle to reach double digits due to the country entering an “Arctic trough”.
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