Temperatures could drop as low as minus 10 degrees Celcius in the coming days, as the heavy rains from Storm Christoph give way to colder winter weather this weekend.

As the storm moves away to the east, the weather is expected to become “more wintry now”, according to a Met Office forecaster.

Meteorologist Craig Snell added: “We’re losing the rain but gaining some colder and possibly some wintry weather too.”

A yellow weather warning for ice is in place along a large part of western coasts from the Scottish Highlighlands down to the north-west of England and into Wales until Friday 10am.

Northern parts of Scotland will also have a yellow warning for snow and ice until Friday lunchtime. 

Temperatures could drop to -10 overnight in localised parts of Scotland, and could dip as low as -7 in parts of England, Snell said.

“It will be feeling cold, I think that certainly that will be something that we will all be noticing it will be colder than it was to start the week.

“I think the main thing for most of us will be that we will see some frosty nights and with the ground wet from the rain we’ve had we may well see some icy patches.”

Storm Christoph has brought heavy rain and flooding across parts of the country, forcing hundreds to evacuate their homes. 

One man, aged 70, was taken to hospital after accidentally swallowing sewage water when his house was flooded.

Chris Spencer and his wife Marlene were forced to flee their home in Chester on Wednesday with the help of their family after dirty water began coming in amid the bad weather.

“It was just literal knee-deep water surrounding the whole of the houses. We ran in and we then figured out it was all sewage water so you can imagine the smell,” his granddaughter Alex Roberts told PA news agency.

“As he was trying to get out he fell over into the water and hurt his back, then he swallowed sewage water.

“With that, he had hypothermia as well because he was so cold so he had to go to hospital and while we were trying to take him out of the water I swallowed some sewage water as well so I had to get antibiotics from the hospital too.” 

Spencer – who has not yet received the Covid vaccination – stayed in hospital overnight before being discharged the next morning.

“They’re not really speaking much, they’re absolutely shook,” their granddaughter continued. “My nan is very upset, she keeps crying. It’s really hard to see them like that.”

On Thursday dozens of care home residents were forced to evacuate after heavy rain brought by Storm Christoph led to flooding across northern England.

Around 40 residents were assisted out of the Weaver Court care home in Northwich, Cheshire, by fire crews with dinghies on Thursday afternoon, as most of the town centre laid under water.

Cheshire was among the areas hit hardest as roads were disrupted and residents in the county warned that river levels were still rising on Thursday.

Elsewhere in the country, hundreds of people were told to leave their homes because of rising water levels in the Didsbury and Northenden areas of Greater Manchester, Bangor-on-Dee in North Wales and in the Skewen area of Neath, North Wales.

Anyone self-isolating or those who were extremely clinically vulnerable were contacted directly to be warned of the possibility of evacuation and promised support if they needed it.