The threat of snow combined with roadworks, rail engineering works and strikes could cause misery for many returning home from the Easter holiday weekend.
Up to 60mm of rain may fall in parts of south-west England and southern Wales, and the Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings for snow in parts of northern England and southern and central Scotland as the band of wet weather
hits colder air to the north.
Met Office forecaster Helen Roberts said: “The main risk is rain. We have a number of warnings out at the moment, including a fairly large rain warning covering most of the country. It is going to cause problems for people travelling today. There will be a lot of surface water on roads.”
Although fears of a return of the “beast from the east” and predictions of a white Easter proved wide of the mark, the Met Office said snow could prove disruptive in some places today, causing some travel issues.
There are currently more than 100 flood alerts and seven flood warnings in place across England.
Southern England could see sleet showers but snow is unlikely to settle, and in Northern Ireland heavy rain is forecast, continuing into tomorrow.
There is a chance of flooding and hill snow in Northern Ireland could see some rain, with today and tomorrow.
Motorists are also expected to face delays on the roads with some stranded vehicles and rail and air travel is also predicted to be disrupted.
Mobile phone service and some rural communities face the threat of being cut off.
Engineering works continue at Bristol Temple Meads station, which is not set to reopen until Wednesday after what Network Rail described as its largest resignalling project. Replacement buses were running on many popular holiday routes including to Weston-super-Mare.
There were reduced services at London’s Euston, Liverpool Street and Waterloo stations, and services at Manchester Victoria will resume today.
South Western Railway was hit by another strike by the RMT union over the holiday weekend in a continuing dispute over staffing levels on trains, but it pledged to operate a full service.
The RAC predicted there would be about 1mn more leisure journeys by car over this Easter weekend compared with the same period last year.
The AA warned motorists to take extra care and said the bank holiday weekend is “likely to be one of the busiest on the roads in recent years”.