Cold conditions will continue over the weekend after parts of the South West were hit by heavy rain, forecasters have said.

While Friday brought dramatic “thundersnow” to some parts of Scotland, and other parts of the UK woke up to wintry scenes, Saturday’s forecast featured more rain.

Heavy rain hit parts of the South West and southern Wales on Saturday morning.

A yellow weather warning was in place from the early hours, covering Marlborough, Salisbury, Southampton and parts of Winchester.

The yellow warning indicates a risk of flooding to some homes and businesses, while public transport services may be disrupted.

The Environment Agency said 11 flood warnings were in place in England including in Swanage, Dorset, due to heavy rainfall.

A yellow weather warning is also in place for rain in parts of north-east Scotland, covering Inverness and Aberdeen where up to 40mm was previously forecast to fall.

Forecasters said Saturday will be cold and cloudy, with eastern areas seeing showers later with the chance of light snow on hilltops.

According to the Met Office, temperatures will stay in single digits on Saturday, reporting figures of 4C (39.2F) in Birmingham and 8C (46.4F) in Plymouth in the morning.

Saturday night is predicted to be cold, with freezing fog patches across Northern Ireland and parts of England.

The Met Office previously warned icy conditions are likely to persist at least until Tuesday.

Thursday into Friday saw the mercury dropping to minus 9.6C (14.7F) at Altnaharra, Sutherland, in the Highlands.

Winter weather Dec 4th 2020
A dog walker braves the snow at Woolsthorpe Locke, Leicestershire (Mike Egerton/PA)

Matthew Box, a meteorologist with the Met Office, said: “It will be a cold-feeling day but there will be some bright sunny spells through Saturday, but showers will continue to affect many coastal areas where the wind is coming in off the sea.

Mr Box said: “Saturday night into Sunday is going to see a relatively widespread frost where we have clearer skies, particularly across parts of England and Wales, as well as further north in Scotland.

“We might see temperatures in some of the glens of Scotland approach minus 9C (15.8F) or minus 10C (14F) on Saturday night so it could be a rather sharp frost across local spots of Scotland.”

The coldest night of 2020 so far was minus 10.2C (13.6F), recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire on February 13.