SNOW could arrive in the region from midday tomorrow.
A yellow weather warning for ice and snow has been issued for northern England, including parts of Greater Manchester, on Saturday and Sunday.
Temperatures on Friday night will get as low as 0 in Bolton and in the daytime they are not expected to rise much above 1 degrees, on Saturday, before rising to 5 degrees on Sunday.
The Met Office's chief meteorologist Steve Willington said: "This weekend's weather brings a range of winter hazards, with the possibility of heavy snow and blizzards in parts of Scotland and freezing rain for northern parts of the UK.
"As such, there is the potential for disruption to travel on the roads and possible delays or cancellations to public transport services, so we encourage people to keep an eye on the latest weather forecast warnings and to take care when travelling.
"At the moment, the heaviest snow is expected over higher ground in Scotland with the chance of drifting snow due to strong winds.
"Snow is also expected to settle at lower levels in Scotland and parts of northern England, with the risk of freezing rain and ice on Saturday night."
At lower levels there will be up to 5cm of snow in parts of Scotland and northern England.
Heavy #snow and #blizzards may develop across Scotland and northern England this #weekend, with a risk of #freezingrain in places. Stay #weatheraware ❄️ pic.twitter.com/SE1n7xAOvj
— Met Office (@metoffice) December 13, 2018
The cold weather will be caused by an active low-pressure system moving in from the Atlantic on Friday night.
However the cold weather is not expected to stick around for long, with temperatures expected to get back up to 8 or 9 degrees at the beginning of next week.
Thursday night will see the annual Geminid meteor shower appear in the skies and visibility is expected to be good.
At its peak, people should be able to see more than 50 shooting stars per hour originating from an asteroid.
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