UK weather maps show when Britain gets 18-hour flurry of April snow

Forget April showers - 18 hours of snow is set to blast the UK in little over a week. Parts of the UK may be basking in but the dry and settled weather could be short-lived, with a barrage of snow set to descend on the country.

Maps , using MetDesk data, predict a blanket of hitting northern regions at around 6am on Monday, April 14, and sticking around until midnight on Tuesday, April 15. The snowy spell could set in across a stretch of Scotland including Edinburgh, Inverness and Perth early on April 14, reaching depths of around 1cm before beginning to creep down to the English border and into Northumberland.

During the following few hours, blanket of white is predicted to settle across a stretch of the UK, from the tip of northwestern Scotland down to Leeds in West Yorkshire by 6pm.

The snowfall is then expected to continue building throughout the evening before being swept out by a rainy front from the south, moving across the western coast with rainfall of up to 2mm per hour. The April snowstorm will also see temperatures plummet from their double-digit highs to around 0C, with the mercury dropping below freezing right across the UK, from the Scottish Highlands to London and Southampton in the south.

Unsettled wet weather is set to make the snowy blitz short-lived, but temperatures are expected to remain low into the rest of the week - signalling a drastic departure from the seasonal highs that have had Brits .

The Met Office's long-range forecast for April 8 to April 17 also warns of more "unsettled" conditions from mid-April, with "rain or showers [trying] to push in from the west". Overnight frosts are also likely to return, according to the forecaster, with dry and bright spells broken up by cool and windy conditions set to characterise the days immediately ahead.

Today:

Generally dry and settled with warm sunshine. Some showery rain possible in southwest England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with patchy cloud also expected in northeast Scotland. Cool temperatures could also be caused by an easterly breeze, especially near the North Sea.

Tonight:

Breezy but dry conditions across the UK with some clear skies and some cloud developing in the north and east. Frost possible in northern regions.

Saturday:

Chilly temperatures and low cloud in the northeast, while warm sunshine is forecast for most of the country. Mild temperatures brought down slightly by a cool easterly breeze.

Outlook for Sunday to Tuesday:

Generally fine and dry weather with warm sunshine, brought on by a continuing high pressure front. Some overnight frosts possible, with cooler and less settled conditions near the North Sea coast.