BRACE yourselves - rain, hail, snow and ice looks to hit parts of the region over the next few days.

In Cumbria heavy rainfall is expected tomorrow while the south of Scotland could face frequent and heavy hail and snow showers on Monday and Tuesday.

The Environment Agency has sent out a rainfall warning for Cumbria and is poised to issue flood alerts - the lowest level of warning - for some rivers in the county on Sunday afternoon.

No rivers are expected to rise so much that flood warnings are triggered. Homes and properties will not be affected either, according to the agency's forecast.

A statement circulated by the Environment Agency through the Cumbria Community Messaging service says: "Heavy rainfall is forecast for Sunday evening into Monday morning and will be accompanied by strong to gale force winds in some locations.

"It is anticipated that some Flood Alerts will be issued for some river catchments across the County on Sunday afternoon.

"This means flooding to low lying land and roads is possible. We do not expect river levels to reach any Flood Warning thresholds and would expect no property to be affected."

Temperatures are set to plunge on Monday and in Carlisle the Met Office predicts "frequent, squally" showers, often wintry with hail and thunder possible.

Meanwhile up to four inches of snow is forecasted to fall on high ground across parts of Scotland over the next few days.

The Met Office warns that frequent and heavy hail and snow showers are likely to affect many parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland from Monday evening.

The yellow weather warning was valid until Tuesday night but it has now been extended and will remain in force until around 11am on Wednesday.

Travel delays on roads are possible, with a small chance of cancellations to public transport.

Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders are among the areas to have been issued with a Met Office yellow warning for snow and ice.

Western areas of Scotland are expected to be worst hit.

Power cuts and other services may also be affected, the warning states.

The Met Office's chief forecaster predicts: "Snow showers will be heaviest and most frequent across western Scotland.

"The largest accumulations of snow will be over high ground with over 10 cm building up above 200 metres. At low levels, accumulations of the order 2-5 cm will be more typical.

"Showers will also be accompanied by hail and lightning at times, particularly across northern and western Scotland."