Early figures released by the Met Office confirmed what many had already suspected, with the UK hit by a bitterly strong snowstorm in March.

The last time that thermometers plunged to these lows in the season was in 1979, with this year's spring the fifth coldest in the UK's recorded history.

Matt Taylor, a BBC weather forecaster, said that high pressure systems from Scandinavia came across much of the UK to bring wintry weather to large swathes of snow and ice across the country - an unusual event outside of winter.

March 2013 was the second coldest ever on record, with thousands of farmers' cattle dying in huge snow drifts that covered valley farms in multiple areas of the UK.

Mr Taylor said: "This will come as little surprise to many [but] we have just experienced the coldest winter in over 30 years."

The mean temperature (which is daytime maximum added to night time minimums) should be 7.7C and this year is around 6.1C.

This goes against recent springs as eight out of the last 10 years have been average or above.

However, on Friday night, the stormy weather much of UK is suffering today will clear away to the south. High pressure will build in bringing settled weather.

So hopefully we're all looking at a fairly nice Bank Holiday Weekend!