Severe weather warning: chance of snow on Boxing Day

It said rain, sleet and snow are set to spread east across parts of Northern Ireland, England and Wales, before clearing in the evening and overnight.

The ‘yellow warning’ means there is a risk of several centimetres of snow even at low levels, and roads could turn very icy and is in place between 11am on Friday to 6am on Saturday.

A depression developing over the Atlantic, with snow expected to its north and heavy rain to the south.

The Met Office said: “There remains much more uncertainty than average regarding the track of this depression which in turn leads to uncertainty about the location of the heaviest precipitation and how much snow there will be.

“Where snow does occur accumulations of 2cm to 4cm are likely even to lower levels and in excess of 10cm possible.”