South Tyneside weather: Met Office predicting weekend snow for South Shields and wider North East

The Met Office is predicting snow across the opening weekend of March for South Tyneside as cold weather returns, showing we remain in the depths of winter for now.

The weather service's forecast for the weekend predicts unsettled, cold conditions which may result in flurries of snow across the coming days with any snowfall potentially starting as early as the evening of Friday, March 1.

The forecast predicts: "a band of strong winds, rain and hill snow to arrive by the afternoon" with the rest of the prediction saying "snow [is] likely to be confined to high ground. Some sharp showers following in behind. Maximum temperature 7°C" for Friday.

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Lows of -2°C will see any snowfall continue into Saturday morning, with the Met Office forecast saying: "Another cold and frosty morning with further rain and hill snow arriving in the morning, slowly clearing into the evening. Light winds. Maximum temperature 6°C."

Luckily for anyone who isn't a fan of the white stuff, this is expected to be the final snowfall of the winter with frost and fog expected to continue into the new week, although higher temperatures will mean any precipitation will fall as rain.

Moving into next week, the forecast reads: "From the middle of next week a more widespread dry spell of weather is likely to develop with increasing amounts of sunshine and, following a chilly start to the week, temperatures should rise a little above average for the time of year.

"Some rain will be remain possible at times, though this will be confined to western parts of the UK.

"Towards mid-month conditions are expected to turn more unsettled again, especially across the south, where rain and showers could become frequent and heavy at times. Northern areas more likely to have further decent spells of fine, dry weather."