Cumbria is unlikely to see much snow today, according to Alan Goodman, the Met Office Regional Advisor for North West England.

In his latest update on weather conditions for today, he writes: "At present Cumbria looks the area most likely to miss most of the snow although a few showers may intercept the more southern parts of the county."

Referring to the reion as a whole, he states: "Things went pretty much to plan overnight with a few snow showers, all confined to the southwestern end of our region.

"The forecast for today is essentially unchanged with very cold but largely dry and sunny conditions prevailing for most. However, that southwestern corner including the Wirral, Merseyside and more especially west Cheshire will still be at risk from a few snow/hail showers through the day.

"Later this afternoon and into this evening the winds will be going round from NW'ly to WNW'ly or Wly and although this doesn't sound much but it will bring more of the region, certainly east Cheshire along with Lancashire and Greater Manchester into the firing line from snow showers.

"These may become rather frequent and possibly heavy for a time and my latest guidance from the Chief Forecaster at Exeter HQ suggests that some places could see as much as 5 to 10cm of snow by the end of the night, although as always it's likely to be something of a hit and miss situation.

"Flash warnings for snow may be required this afternoon if the showers are deemed heavy enough to warrant a warning.

"Lowest temperatures tonight well inland will be in the range -5 to -10C, probably over Cumbria where the cloud will be most broken.

"For Saturday, the remnants of the overnight snow showers may still give some patchy (mostly light by this time) snow through the morning almost anywhere across the region including Cumbria, although any additional amounts will likely be small.

"The Early Warning which was issued yesterday to Merseyside, Cheshire and Greater Manchester will likely be scaled down to Advisory status today as the weather system responsible looks increasingly like taking a more southerly track which would then no longer impact our region.

"The forecast could, of course, reverse itself but this seems very unlikely now.

"Another very cold day everywhere with max temperatures around zero to +2 Celsius, perhaps even staying slightly below inland where significant snow cover has developed.

"Saturday night, Sunday and into Monday currently look just about dry but we will retain the very cold theme with locally severe overnight frosts (< -5C) and daytime temperatures generally between zero and +3C. Hence where snow does fall later today and overnight there will be an ongoing ice risk from partial thawing and subsequent re-freezing."