UK weather: Met Office maps reveal areas of ice and snow for this week

The UK is bracing for snow for the rest of the entire week.

The Met Office has issued yellow warnings for snow and ice from Tuesday until Friday.

It said that temperatures on Tuesday evening could drop to -15C, which would make it the coldest night of the year so far.

Warnings for snow and ice have been issued for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales this week, as cold Arctic air blasts in.

Many parts of the country, particularly in northern areas, including Yorkshire and Northumberland, have already experienced some snow.

Watch: Coldest night of the year expected on Tuesday

The Met Office said temperatures could drop to minus 15C in some sheltered Scottish glens, especially where there is fresh snow cover, on Tuesday night.

The lowest temperature in the UK so far this year is minus 10.4C, which was recorded at Drumnadrochit near Inverness in the Highlands on 19 January.

Temperatures are set to drop almost six degrees below their coldest last March, when they reached minus 9.1C in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire.

Temperatures dipped to minus 7.6C at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands on Monday night and the small hamlet was covered in 12cm of snow, more than anywhere else in the UK.

Snow has also settled across Northumberland and North Yorkshire with some spots experiencing 2-3cm of cover.

Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said people should “expect to wake up to snow” on Wednesday if they live in the south.

He said: “I think over higher grounds such as Exmoor, the Chilterns and the Cotswolds there will be a fair amount of snow.

Read more: How cold does it have to be to snow?

“Elsewhere it is going to be quite difficult, especially after today’s wet weather, to say how much snow will settle.”

He added snow which is expected to fall in the north of England, southern Scotland and Northern Ireland on Thursday and Friday is likely to be “much more impactful”.

A yellow weather warning for snow and ice is in place in much of northern and eastern Scotland and north-east England until 10am on Wednesday.

London, the south of England and South Wales will be covered by a yellow warning for snow all day on Wednesday and until 9am on Thursday and a few centimetres could fall in those areas.

Northern England, North Wales, most of Scotland and Northern Ireland will be covered by a yellow warning for snow between 3am on Thursday and 6pm on Friday.

Laura Tobin, a meteorologist on ITV's Good Morning Britain, tweeted a graphic of the Earth showing how rain moving north will turn to snow when it hits the Arctic air above the UK.

Burkill warned people to travel in snowy conditions only if essential and to bring a blanket in case they get stuck overnight.

He said: “Through the worst of the weather, keep up to date with warnings, be prepared your journey may take longer than normal and you may end up stranded in your car.

“If there is significant snow take water and maybe a blanket just in case, that’s if you absolutely need to travel.

“Treat the weather sensibly and be aware it could be dangerous.”

The UK Health Security Agency has issued a level-three cold weather alert for the whole of England which is likely to be reviewed in the coming days.

The agency’s head of extreme events and health protection, Dr Agostinho Sousa, said people should check on vulnerable relatives and told pensioners and anyone with an underlying health condition to heat their home to at least 18C.

On 14 March 1958, the temperature dropped to a record low for the month of minus 22.8C at Logie Coldstone, Aberdeenshire.