An arctic plunge will bring travel chaos to the UK at the weekend as an icy blast brings blizzards to Scotland and gales of up to 80mph.
Snow will hit Scotland, the north of England, East Anglia and Wales from today as the Met Office issued yellow weather warnings for Friday and Saturday.
Intense winds of up to 50-60mph around the country could cause travel chaos and power cuts on Saturday - will ferries, trains and road journeys likely to be severely delayed.
The Met Office has warned the extreme wind could close bridges and roads as well as see tiles blown off buildings over the weekend.
It added: 'Gusts seem likely to reach 50 to 60 mph widely, with 70 to 80 mph possible in coastal locations, particularly in parts of Scotland and north-east England.'
Warnings on the weather forecaster's website say 'there is a slight chance of some damage to buildings, such as tiles blown from roofs' and 'there is a small chance that some roads and bridges could close'.
A Met Office spokesman told MailOnline: 'We could see blizzard conditions on the highlands. Snow will start from later today and showers could fall as snow today through to Thursday. On Friday there will be a lot of rain in northeast Scotland and over the highlands that could fall as snow.
'As the temperature drops off through Friday night there's a chance we could see snow falling over higher ground in Wales, the Pennines and a dash across East Anglia.'
Intense winds of up to 50-60mph around the country could cause travel chaos and power cuts on Saturday - will ferries, trains and road journeys likely to be severely delayed. Pictured, arctic air is bringing snow this week
A wind warning has been released for Northern Ireland and Scotland on Friday, before extending to almost the entire of the UK on Saturday
A Met Office spokesman added: 'Showers could fall as snow over higher ground in Scotland. It'll be windy in north and western Scotland. That cold front sticks through the day and brings cold to rest of UK with widespread frost behind the cold front.'
The strong winds are set to affect the majority of the UK, with only a small part of south-east England avoiding a yellow weather warning, and it will be in place until 6pm on Saturday.
He added: 'The cold front is just lingering over
