Brits have been warned to brace for a bone-chilling weekend as the Met Office predicts temperatures could plummet to a frigid minus 20C in the north on Friday night. A wave of weather warnings for ice has descended across most of Wales and Northern Ireland, alongside extensive areas of eastern England, until 10am on Friday.

With Inverness-shire already hitting rock-bottom at minus 12.4C overnight on Wednesday, Scottish valleys are anticipated to sink even further, possibly to the depths of minus 16C tonight. Liam Eslick, a Met Office meteorologist, remarked: "It’s going to be another cold couple of days, and recovering into the early part of next week."

He added: "Anywhere across the UK is likely to see those temperatures dipping below freezing and likely to see quite severe frost and ice to form overnight tonight." Central and southeastern England, coupled with parts of Wales, should also anticipate freezing fog overnight that could stubbornly persist through Friday morning in some spots.

Those regions where fog lifts can expect bright sunshine, while Devon and Cornwall face overcast skies with sporadic rain due to an incoming south-western front, implying Dartmoor and Exmoor might witness snowfall. Further snow showers could grace northern Scotland and potentially northeast England on Friday.

Eslick cautioned: "Because that rain is falling on some pretty cold ground, it is likely to turn to icy conditions as well."

Brits are warned to wrap up warm as the UK braces for a bitter cold snap, with temperatures forecasted to plummet significantly by Friday night. Weather expert Mr Eslick cautioned: "So, we are telling people to take care if you are travelling around with these cold temperatures for tomorrow, but at least it’s quite settled and away from that freezing fog it will be nice, bright and sunny".

He highlighted Scotland and northern England as areas where the mercury could dip to between minus 15C and minus 20C, adding: "That’s probably the lowest limits that we’re ... expecting, we probably don’t really expect many places to get close to minus 20C, but we could see one or two places that could just touch that mark overnight Friday into Saturday."

Speaking on the perfect conditions for such frigid weather, he stated: "Just because it’s, again, still conditions, it’s high pressure, not a lot of wind and under clear skies as well. Especially where there’s still snow on the ground across Scotland and northern England, that’s sort of a perfect scenario to see those temperatures just plummet from Friday night into Saturday morning as well."

The chill is expected to linger but will gradually diminish as the new week approaches. According to Mr Eslick, "Saturday is still going to be another cold one, unfortunately. Sunday will still be a chilly one, but not as cold as what we’ve seen for today and for tomorrow."

Looking ahead with a bit more optimism, he suggests, "By Monday, we are expecting the temperatures to come back up to what we would expect for this time of year, which is around sort of 7C (or) 8C".

Snow and gales have already caused havoc across the UK, with rail lines forced to shut down. Manchester Airport was forced to close both its runways on Thursday morning due to a heavy snowfall, although they were later reopened.

Transport for Wales also had to close some of its rail lines due to damage caused by severe weather conditions. Hundreds of schools in Scotland and around 90 in Wales were closed on Thursday due to the icy conditions.

Motorists are being urged to stick to major roads that are most likely to have been gritted. The RAC has reported its highest demand for rescues in a three-day period since December 2022. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has extended its cold weather health alert for all of England until Sunday. Amber alerts have been extended and will now run until January 12, indicating a likely rise in deaths, according to the agency.