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.

Steven Keates, an operational meteorologist at the Met Office, said those areas had seen the heaviest rainfall on Saturday morning of about 25 to 30mm.

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, after it saw 31mm of rainfall in six hours.

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.

Mr Keates said: “The wettest place in the last 24 hours has been Drumnadrochit on the shores of Loch Ness, that place has seen 48.6mm of rain.”

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

Mr Keates said: “In summary, it’s a bit messy this weekend. It’s staying cold, gradually becoming a bit drier and we’ll switch our attention to some overnight frost, and I think tomorrow morning will see some dense freezing fog patches in places.”

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

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.

Thursday into Friday was the coldest night of the winter so far, with the mercury dropping to minus 9.6C (14.7F) at Altnaharra, Sutherland, in the Highlands.

Friday’s snowfall was likely “the most widespread snow of the season so far,” Mr Keates said.

Conditions coming into the weekend were warmer, as overnight temperatures remained around freezing with minus 1.6C (29.12F) recorded in East Malling, Kent.

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

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