A weekend whiteout: Britain braced for blizzard conditions as winter weather continues well into spring

Britain is bracing itself for a weekend whiteout, with widespread snowstorms and strong winds set to lash the country and postpone the arrival of spring weather even further.

Much of England, Scotland and Wales will receive at least 8cm of snow tomorrow evening, with only London and the south East likely to be spared blizzard conditions.

Winds of up to 50mph will occur in central England, 60mph in Wales and 65 mph in Scotland, with daytimes highs of 4c across the country.

Before the onslaught of snow tomorrow, the south-west of England and Wales will today endure flooding caused by heavy and persistent rain.

The band of rain will turn to light snow when it reaches northern Wales and northern England tonight and hit Scotland by tomorrow morning.

Sally Webb, weather forecaster for MeteoGroup, said the outlook for the next few days looks bleak.

She said: “Firstly today there will be some very heavy and persistent rain, possibly more than 30mm, which will cause some localised flooding in the south west and Wales.

”As it moves north-eastwards it will turn to snow across the north Wales and England tonight which will all see accumulations of around 3cms.

“It will arrive in Scotland by dawn tomorrow which could see up to 8cms in high grounds.

”Elsewhere, Britain will see scattered snow, sleet and rain but nothing significant until Friday night.

“Between one and four cms will fall quite widely across England, Wales and Scotland.

”More snow across Saturday and Sunday will see up to a further 8cms.“