Just seen the following adavance weather warning from the met office

Here is an ADVANCED WARNING of Heavy Snow affecting North West England, North East England, The Midlands, Wales, Central Southern England, South East England and East Anglia AND Lincolnshire.
Issued by the Met Office at 10:04 on Friday, 17 December 2004.
This is the first warning of disruption due to Heavy Snow.
The Met Office is forecasting a deepening Atlantic depression to run quickly east across Southern England overnight Saturday into Sunday morning. Frontal rain is likely to turn to snow in places over Wales, Midlands, including southern parts of NW and NE England especially, but not exclusively over higher ground. The risk extends almost anywhere across England and Wales Saturday night into Sunday as the depression clears south. 5-10cm of snow are possible, in particular over higher ground which could lead to travel disruption.
At high elevations the snow may drift, giving temporary blizzard conditions.
In addition, prolonged heavy rain is expected in the south and southwest leading to localised flooding. Winds will also increase along with the heavy rain gusting 60mph in exposed places.
At the moment the track and depth of the low are subject to some uncertainty and there is a small chance for the snow threat to extend further north into Southern Scotland. Probabilities will be revised in subsequent issues of the warning.
For enquiries regarding this warning - please contact your regional Met Office.
Transmitted by the Met Office at 10:04 on Friday 17 December


funny thing is I inspected our sledge this morning and decided it needed
replacing so I trudged up to town in the heavy rain and winds to get
one. Got soaked to the skin.

Sarah H Fleet, Hampshire