Last flurry of winter snow, and Easter looking chilly

PARTS of Northern Ireland were hit by snow yesterday, as forecasters warned there could be more bad weather to come in the run-up to Easter.

Several areas also saw heavy rain showers as the recent mild spell gave way to more chilly conditions.

Senior Met Office meteorologist Steven Keates told the Belfast Telegraph: “We’re seeing much colder air spread across all parts of the UK, and it will get colder still before it begins to warm up again.

“There could also be slush and ice first thing on Saturday morning.

“The winds will pick up again later today and there will be more rain as the evening goes on, giving a wet and windy end to the day.

“After several days of quiet weather and respectable temperatures, we’re getting a last-minute taste of winter.”

Tomorrow it will be mostly dry, but cloudy with rain later in the day and overnight.

The rain is likely to persist through Monday and into Tuesday before it clears later on Tuesday, with a few sunny spells later on.

While the weather is to become milder in the middle of next week, it is predicted to turn colder over Easter, the Met Office warned.

Colder air from the north could bring another dip in temperatures for the holiday weekend.

“There will be quite a lot of rain around next week,” Mr Keates said.

He added that by Monday temperatures are expected to lift into the mid-teens, a few degrees above average for this time of year.

However, this will be offset by cloud, wind and rain.

“The weather giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other,” he said.

Meanwhile, the mercury could rise to 24C in south-east England by Tuesday.

That could make it only the second day in March the temperature has reached this high since records began in 1884.

The maximum temperature recorded in the month was 25.6C on March 29, 1968 at Mepal in Cambridgeshire.

The coldest Easter weekend on record was in 2013 when minus 12.5C was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire on Easter Sunday.

The deepest snow recorded at Easter was on Good Friday 2010, when 36cm fell at Strathdearn, also in Scotland.

The wettest Easter was in 1991 when 108.7mm of rainfall was recorded at Seatoller in Cumbria on Easter Monday.