WINTRY weather and more snow showers are set to return to parts of the North-East tomorrow, bringing coverings of up to 10cm in places.

Forecasters said a band of snow would move in from the west with accumulations of between 5cm to 10cm by noon.

But the predicted snowfall is expected to ease off by the weekend, turning to rain across most parts of the UK.

Gareth Harvey, forecaster with the Press Association's weather division, MeteoGroup, said the latest round of snow would not be as severe as it was in December when widespread Arctic conditions brought the country to a standstill.

He said:"Tonight, theres a risk of snow moving in across Scotland becoming a little more widespread, particularly on high grounds, which could locally get fairly significant accumulations.

"There will be a more organised area of snow moving in from the west, with probably 5cm (2ins) to 10cm (4ins) falling by midday in places.

"Tomorrow night and into Thursday, we will just see a scattering of snow showers across Scotland, and there is a band of wet weather that's going to start edging northwards later on Thursday night that could well turn to snow.

"There's fairly milder air following so we will have a temporary period of snow from central parts of the UK northwards, but it doesnt look like it's going to hang around."

Temperatures were forecast to remain above freezing.