Will the East of England get snow? Region braced for chilly weather as high pressure system moves on

A blast of cold air in the coming days is expected to see daytime and overnight temperatures plummet lower than they have for a while - and that brings the prospect of snow and sleet in the East of England, according to ITV Anglia weather presenter Chris Page.

The days are getting longer, the clocks moved forward at the weekend but could the weather be taking a step back?

Last week, we were enjoying temperatures into the high teens and the warmest day of the year so far occurred on 23 March, topping out at 20.2C at Santon Downham here in the East of England.

But this week, after a mild start, temperatures are set to plummet - in fact there's talk of sleet and snow!

Hang on. March and the start of April can be a fickle when it comes to the weather and often it can be down to the wind direction.

At the end of the winter, the ground and sea are at their coldest and so it takes a while for things to warm up.

Last week, a dominant high pressure was anchored to the east of the UK over Denmark, bringing warm southeasterly air from the continent combined with long sunny days.

This week, that same high will shift to the west, leading to a cold northerly flow setting up from Tuesday night.

As the cold air floods across the country, daytime highs will drop into single figures, overnight lows too will likely be below freezing and any precipitation that falls could fall as rain, sleet or snow.

The snow is likely to be mainly confined over the high ground of Scotland and Northern England.

Meanwhile for us in the East some wintry flurries are possible. But will it be a white out? I doubt it.

The benefit from last week is the road temperatures have started to warm up a little and so have the top few centimetres of soil, meaning we're less likely to see too much mount up.

The wintry showers suggest the atmosphere is cold enough, but the sun is starting to win out now warming the land.

Worst case, we're likely to see some slushy deposits but I'm not expected any major disruption here in the East of England.

So we continue to see cold air diving in, stripping us of the warmth from the last few days, but it'll pass and the warmth will return.

After all, this is very typical of Spring and - statistically - you're more likely to have a white easter than you are a white Christmas.