Forecasters warn of ‘shock to the system’ from widespread frost overnight

People will have a “shock to the system” from the “widespread frost” covering the UK on Tuesday morning, the Met office has said.

Yellow weather warnings covering much of Scotland, Northern Ireland and stretching through the north east of England, down to Ipswich came into effect on Monday afternoon.

In the warning areas, periods of rain, sleet and snow may lead to icy surfaces and disrupt car and train journeys.

Forecasters have warned that much of the UK will see temperatures fall below freezing overnight on Monday leaving “a cold night for all of us”.

A Met Office spokesperson said: “We’ve not really seen much in the way of frost by night so a few of us have probably gone quite a while without kind of having to scrape the cars etc, so a bit of a shock to the system for some tomorrow morning.”

The yellow warnings are set to last until 10am on Tuesday.

When the warnings end, Tuesday is likely to become a “dry and bright day for many”, albeit remaining cool with wintry showers for some across the northern isles and east coast of Scotland, the Met Office have said.

Met Office chief forecaster Steve Willington said: “A cool pool of air dominates much of the UK for the start of this week, bringing with it blustery showers, winter hazards and the possibility of some disruption at times. Initially, the snow risk is reserved for northern parts of Scotland with the highest accumulations – possibly 5-8cm – over the highest ground, though a couple of centimetres are possible to low levels at times.

“North and north-eastern parts of Scotland will also see increasingly gusty winds Monday evening and night, with gusts of 50-60 mph possible on some exposed coasts.”