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The Met Office has named the areas of the UK forecast to face snow from Sunday as a change in the weather brings cooler temperatures. Despite a largely warm and settled weekend with long spells of sunshine, a shift in the weather is expected from Sunday when a band of cloud and patchy rain will move South-east across the country, followed by some sunny spells and scattered showers in the north.

The national forecaster said some of these showers may turn "wintry" and bring some snowfall over higher ground in northern parts of the UK. Rain showers are forecast to continue into next week in northern and western areas, occasionally turning to snow over the Scottish mountains on Monday and Tuesday.

By midweek, cooler temperatures will arrive for much of the UK, along with frequent - and sometimes heavy - showers and further snowfall over higher ground.

The Met Office has warned that snow could reach lower levels in northern parts of the country late on Wednesday, with temperatures expected to be near or below average.

Met Office weather maps show some snowfall over parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Cumbria in North West England on Wednesday, while areas of East Yorkshire, West Midlands, East of England, South East England, South West England and Wales face heavy rain showers. Cooler conditions will persist into the latter part of the week and may result in some overnight frost.

Met Office Chief Forecaster, Steve Willington, said: "While the early part of the period brings warm sunshine for many, it's not unusual to see colder spells and even some wintry showers in March.

"As we head into next week, a shift to a cooler northwesterly flow will bring a drop in temperature and more unsettled weather, including some hill snow in the north and brisk winds at times. This pattern is entirely typical for the time of year."

The change in the weather from Sunday comes in stark contrast to the warm and sunny conditions that have dominated this week, with the UK enjoying its hottest day of the year so far on Wednesday (March 18).

A temperature of 20.9C was recorded in Goggerdan in Wales, but the Met Office said temperatures are predicted to have reached their "peak for a while".

Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said the higher temperatures are because of warm air being dragged up from further south in Europe.

He said: "We get this a lot at this time of year, we sometimes joke the warmest day of the year klaxon is going off every day. I think this will be the peak for a while today [March 18], we are not expecting any further records in the next week or so."