A barrage of snow could grip the UK within weeks as a blizzard from the tip of Scotland to Dartmoor is expected to bury 70 counties. Maps from forecaster WXCharts suggest snow will engulf the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland by March 1, with scattered showers reaching as far south as Devon.

The snowfall has been forecast to push in from the Atlantic, hammering western regions, leaving the east and the south of England largely dry overnight. With scattered snow and rain showers forecast for the days prior, WXCharts has predicted this will accumulate into a staggering 18cm of snow building up over the Pennines.

Central Wales and Northern Ireland may get off more lightly, with neither expected to exceed 10cm of snow by midnight. In England, Manchester could be among the hardest-hit cities, with up to 13cm forecast, while Blackpool may see around 9cm.

Devon could also see patches of light snow, along with a dusting south of Bristol, though amounts there are expected to be modest.

Temperatures could also plunge overnight to a brutal -7C across huge swatches of Scotland, and much of the UK may struggle to rise above freezing, leading to potentially hazardous driving conditions.

In northern England it is a similar story, with temperatures varying between freezing and -2C as far south as Manchester, while the south may reach a maximum of 4C in Kent.

The Met Office forecast differs, and it acknowledges that snow is hard to predict. It has low confidence in the dominant weather pattern at present for the period between March 1.

Its long-range forecast predicted: “There are signals for both unsettled conditions, bringing a risk of some heavy rain and possibly strong winds, but also periods of drier, more settled weather, which may mean slightly colder conditions.

“The more settled pattern is looking slightly more probable early in this period, with more unsettled conditions currently looking slightly more probable come the end of the period.”