First snow of winter in York - weather warnings in place

A smattering of snow fell overnight in York on Monday night (November 18) and drivers are being warned of icy conditions in the days ahead as the Met Office has issued snow and ice yellow alerts for large areas of Scotland and England amid plummeting temperatures.

A dusting of snow in Dean’s Park Image: Sally Millington

Tom Morgan, Met Office meteorologist, said that despite a “mild” start to the month, the current conditions are more typical of “mid-winter to late-winter”.

He said: “What we can say is that it’s going to be very cold for the for the time of year, there will be widespread overnight frosts, and a few locations where there’s snow on the ground.

“In the North could even see overnight minimums down to minus eight, possibly even minus 10 degrees, so quite unusual for November.”

“It’s quite an early blast of winter,” he added.

Despite the cold conditions, the “whole of the UK” will enjoy more sunshine next week, the meteorologist added.

He said: “That’s one good piece of news.

“We’ve lost the grey, gloomy conditions, or at least we will have by Tuesday, that we’ve seen so far this month, and there’ll be a lot of sunshine really.

“Yes, there’ll be some snow showers in the peripheries of the UK, particularly northern Scotland, and down the east and the west coast, but if you live inland and you live in the south, there’ll be lots of sparkly blue skies on most days through Tuesday to Friday.”