More snow, hail, and ice is expected in parts of England and Scotland in a sharp change of weather from last week.

A cold snap has replaced last week’s sunshine and highs of 20C, with top temperatures across the UK set to be around 10C heading into the weekend.

A Met Office yellow weather warning for ice covering a large swathe of eastern Scotland, north-east England and Yorkshire until 10am on Thursday states that “snow and hail showers could lead to icy surfaces, with possible travel disruption”.

Weather warning for snow & ice March 30-31 2022
(PA Graphics)

A spokesperson for the Met Office warned that more weather warnings could be issued for Friday morning.

Meteorologist Matty Box said that there was currently a “cold air mass” over the UK.

“There is an ice warning out at the moment. If there’s any melt and it refreezes over night then there’s an ice risk.

“I suspect there will be a similar risk for Thursday night to Friday morning.”

He added that there will be a similar chance of snow over Thursday night and Friday morning as well.

“It will be concentrated and there will be snow showers”, he said.

“It will be eastern and northern areas of the UK that are more likely to see any showers of rain, sleet or snow.”

Spring weather Mar 30th 2022
Terry Smith, 57, from Coventry, who is undertaking the coast to coast route hit snow in Allenheads, in the Pennines (Owen Humphreys/PA)

The weather will then improve over the weekend, with some sunny spells.

“Showers will become less frequent, but still with the chance of some wintry showers effects in the east coast and the North Sea coast in particular through Saturday”, Mr Box said.

“There should be a fair amount of sunshine as well with sunny spells in between.”

Temperatures fell below freezing on Wednesday night through to Thursday morning, with councils issuing emergency protocols to deal with the sudden change.

Councils in Newcastle City, North Tyneside and Gateshead all introduced their severe weather emergency protocols on Wednesday night – which included services to help people who are sleeping rough try to stay safe.