Vast swathes of the UK will feel like they have been plunged back into the depths of winter in the coming days, with heavy snowfall, huge temperature drops, and a month’s worth of rain all forecast in pockets of England and Scotland.

Temperatures could drop by around 10 degrees to barely above freezing between Thursday and Monday across large parts of England.

Yet it may feel as cold as minus 5C across sections of the UK from Sunday, with a band of cold air forecast to move in from the east, remaining in place for the early part of next week.

Mild temperatures currently in the low double-figures in England will drop steadily to around 2C by Sunday, before hovering around freezing by Monday.

A glut of Met Office yellow weather warnings currently warn of snowfall across much of Scotland on Thursday, with further rainfall warnings across the north-east of England and Northern Ireland.

A more severe amber snow warning is also in place for much of Scotland from the early hours of Friday until midday Saturday, with forecasters predicting as much as 50cm snowfall in the highest areas between now and Saturday evening.

Further yellow weather warnings on Sunday cover much of Scotland and the east coast of England down as far as parts of Cambridgeshire and Essex, warning of the risk of some snow and ice into Monday.

Up to 80mm of rain is expected to have fallen in isolated parts of the north-east of England between Tuesday evening and Saturday lunchtime – almost one-and-a-half times the volume expected in the region during the whole month of February.

It comes as the first snowdrops of the season have begun to emerge, often seen as the start of spring.

Met Office spokeswoman Nicola Maxey said: “We could see a drop of about 10C in widely expected daytime temperatures going into the weekend and next week.

“Cold air will come in from the east over the weekend, which will bring temperatures down.

“That doesn’t take into account the wind chill, so those cold winds may make it feel much colder than temperatures.”

The Environment Agency currently has dozens of its second-most-severe flood warnings in place, along sections of river including the Thames, the Severn, and the Ouse, meaning flooding is expected.

There are also more than 100 less-severe flood alerts in place, across almost every region of England, meaning flooding is possible.