Snow forecast in short, sharp cold snap Sunrise over South Shields - but the weather is set to turn colder. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA The UK's weather is making an abrupt about-turn, with snow possible on high ground as far south as Wales and the Midlands by midweek. Scottish ski resorts, which this year have suffered one of their shortest seasons, are monitoring snowfall with an eye to reopening pistes, although that remains unlikely because of February and March's thaw. The cold snap is set to be short but bitter, with strong winds adding to the chill factor, especially in Scotland and northern England. True to the seesaw pattern established over the past two months, conditions will then get warmer and drier for the Easter weekend. The ups and downs have been dictated by competing high and low pressure systems, a battle that will see temporary victory this week for a very low patch moving south from the Arctic. Winds veering to the north-east may reach gale force, bringing snow first to the 900-metre (2,950ft) contour and soon down to 300 metres. A spokesman for the Nevis ski area, Scotland's highest, said snow was on its way and monitoring had started in case any skiing might be practicable later in the week. He said: "We're keeping an eye out but when you consider that we've been closed for winter sports since February there is a lot of ground to make up. We don't want to raise false hopes. MeteoGroup forecast falls of up to 10cm in the hills of Scotland from Monday, with wintry weather moving south to the Pennines and reaching Derbyshire and Staffordshire by Wednesday. Lower areas may get a lighter covering of snow or sleet and the cold will be at its most severe on Tuesday night and Wednesday. Senior forecaster Paul Mott said: "It has certainly got colder and there is more unsettled weather on the way. I think we will be waiting quite a long time until we get another decent spell of the sort of warm weather we have seen in the last 10 days. March broke all records for sunshine back to 1929 and was the warmest since 1997, with an average of 187 hours of sun over England and Wales and the maximum temperature recorded of 23.6C in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, last week. The only years to have had a warmer March in the past century were 1938, 1948, 1957, 1990 and 1997. Mott said: "The weather has been quite exceptional but it was really in the last 10 days that things became really warm. Now, I'm afraid that unsettled conditions are coming back. Rain in drought-affected areas remains elusive, with heavy showers after the snow likely to be confined to the north of England and only lighter outbreaks in the south and east. Wetter prospects are in sight for April, when rainfall is expected to reach and possibly exceed average levels across the whole country. Frost is likely well into the month. The Met Office said: "It is likely to continue to feel cool, if not fairly chilly, particularly compared with the recent very warm spell, with temperatures quite widely around or just below the seasonal average. Sunshine amounts are likely to be highly variable in this unsettled regime.