UK weather: Eight inches of snow to hit Britain by the weekend

The UK could see up to eight inches of snow by the weekend, weather forecasters have warned.

After storm Barney brought winds of over 80mph, causing widespread disruption to Britain at the start of the week, it will start to turn colder over the north during Thursday.

According to chief forecaster Leon Brown at The Weather Channel, rain will steadily turn to snow over the Highlands in the evening and overnight.

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"The south of the UK is expected to be dry, bright and quite sunny in the middle of the day on Thursday, before becoming very wet from the southwest in the evening over southern counties, and the rain may last all night along the south coast."

Mr Brown said: "By Friday, central to eastern Scotland is at risk of some moderate to heavy snowfalls. We could see 20cm of snow over the Grampian area and snow even down to sea level in the east. The snow will turn showery through the day with sleet, hail and snow showers running down the east coast of England and to Wales Friday evening and night."

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He added that it will feel "bitter and like winter this weekend" in a fresh and gusty northerly wind. "There will be plenty of sunshine over central Britain, but wintry showers near the east coast and also near western coasts and over North Wales."

Meanwhile, a Met Office spokesman told International Business Times: "We will start to see some wintery showers or snow spreading into the north during Friday, and perhaps a little bit of hail.

"Those wintery showers are increasingly likely across the high ground, but as you go towards the weekend probably even down to lower levels in the north."

Temperatures on Saturday will be 3 to 4C across central Britain, but feel more like -3 or -4C in the wind, says Mr Brown. "Across central Scotland it will stay below freezing all day. Temperatures on Saturday morning may dip below -8C in central Scotland and to -10C the central Highlands."

Widespread frosts are likely over the rest of the UK on Saturday night and Sunday night.

Find your local weather forecast at weather.aol.co.uk