Will it be a White Easter? No, but the cold spell may last until May

Temperatures are unlikely rise to "normal" averages for the time of year until the end of April, the Met Office says.

In Bournemouth and Dorset, temperatures across the Easter Weekend will feel like freezing or below, thanks a wintry wind. Night-time temperatures will feel like -7 across the county. 

The Met Office has issued a cold weather alert for much of England, with a 100% probability of severe cold weather and icy conditions until Friday.

Its outlook for Sunday to April 9 predicts cold, dry weather, with a few light snow flurries and widespread frost and icy patches overnight.

And the Met Office predicts temperatures are unlikely to recover to nearer normal values until the latter part of April.

More than 3,000 people in Argyll in Scotland and the Isle of Arran are without power after ice and snow damaged pylons, damaging the electricity network.

Farmers have been left counting the cost of the blizzard conditions, with many having to rescue stranded livestock at the height of the lambing season.

An RAF Chinook helicopter was called in yesterday to help as part of an emergency operation in Northern Ireland as farms and families were cut off by huge snow drifts.

The severe weather has also been blamed for the deaths of a number of birds, including puffins, razorbills and guillemots, which have washed up on Britain's beaches.

A spokesman for Bournemouth-based WeatherNet said the Easterly and North Easterly winds bringing the temperatures from Siberia are to blame.

“It’s not really going to get any warmer with no real change expected soon,” she said.

“There will continue to be dribs and drabs of rain or sleet over the next couple of days and with the flurries of snow that will continue to be the state of things.”

The temperature will rise from the five or six degrees experienced by most this week to around eight by Monday.

“But it will still be pretty miserable for Spring,” the spokesman added.