Snow and hail to turn into warmer weather over Easter weekend

A blustery end to the week with snow, hail and heavy rain disappearing as quickly as it appeared will make way for clearer skies and warmer weather over Easter weekend, the Met Office has said.

A day of disruptive weather hit the UK on Thursday, with many areas seeing rapidly onsetting showers of heavy hail, and rain and cold temperatures seen up and down Britain.

Two inches of snow was reported in north Cornwall and Devon on Thursday night, with three inches recorded in Sennybridge, Powys, on Thursday morning. Temperatures across the south-west also plunged as low as 1.2C. The cold weather then spread up the UK with more bits of snow seen on top of the country's highest hills.

Rose Mallard, 50, a smallholder from near Bideford, north Devon, said: "To wake up to see the snow settled and a beautiful blue sky was a gift!"

A yellow wind warning was also in place across the whole of the south coast for all of Thursday. Another yellow warning, this time for rain, extending to the early hours of Friday was issued for Northern Ireland.

The Met Office earlier this week dismissed reports of "freezing rain" hitting parts of the country in the run-up to the weekend.

Reports by the Independent and MailOnline this week said freezing rain – water that freezes on impact – is likely to hit parts of Scotland and northern England on Wednesday, having been predicted to fall overnight on Monday, too.

This weather phenomenon is described by the Met Office as "rare", can lead to a hazards on the roads, and can even bring trees and power lines crashing down after being encased in freshly formed ice.

However, Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan told Yahoo News: "The risk of freezing rain was always extremely low, I don't think we did see any last night and we're not expecting any freezing rain in the next few days.

"We don't have any warnings out for it, and we're not expecting it."

Although the blustery conditions will continue for some on Friday most of the country will see an end to the cooler weather that dominated the end of March with the sun predicted to come out for much of it.

Easter weekend

Showers are predicted to dominate on Friday but temperatures will start increasing and rising above 10C. Met Office weather presenter Alexander Deakin said Friday would be "a blustery day, one minute it's sunny, one minute you're caught in a hefty downpour."

Deakin said the weather would be the same up and down the country with a chance of hail and thunder in some places.

Conditions are expected to be similar on Saturday although with more chance of clearer skies and temperatures possibly rising up to 16C. Sunday is more the same with showers contained to Wales and the west of England with the rest of the country expecting to see clear skies.

Temperatures will cool on Monday with some rain expected to hit the southeast with rain coming in from the continent and the north.

What is freezing rain?

The Met Office describes freezing rain as a "rare type of liquid precipitation that strikes a cold surface, and freezes almost instantly".

"We don't see this phenomenon very often in the UK", the forecasting body says, adding that quite specific conditions are needed for it to happen.

When it does occur, the visual effects it creates can be quite striking, such as this picture of a cherry neatly encased in transparent ice.

However, freezing rain also comes with its hazards, as the weight of the ice is sometimes heavy enough to bring down trees and power lines, the Met Office adds.

"The glaze of ice on the ground effectively turns roads and pathways into an ice rink," the weather service says, adding that freezing rain can also be "extremely hazardous" for aircraft.

This phenomenon is more common in other parts of the world, such as the USA, whose weather systems produce much more frequent "ice storms", the Met Office says.

Often, precipitation will first fall as snow if the air higher up is cold enough, but will melt and turn into rain droplets as it passes through warmer air.

However, on rare occasions, these droplets can fall through cold air again just before hitting the ground, and become "supercooled", meaning they are still in liquid form even through their temperature has dropped below zero.

As these supercooled droplets hit the ground in sub-zero conditions, they often spread out upon landing and instantly freeze, encasing the surface in a layer of clear ice.

Read more:

• RAC reveals 8 Easter traffic roads where journey times 'may double' (Yahoo News UK)

• Total solar eclipse: Can I see it in the UK and why is this one unique? (Sky News)

• Northern lights predicted in US and UK on Monday night in wake of solar storms (The Guardian)