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Snow forecast to further delay UK spring Snow forecast to further delay UK spring
(about 7 hours later)
Much of Britain faces a white weekend with widespread snowstorms and strong winds expected to dash springtime plans. There will see no let-up in the bad weather over the weekend, with snow across much of Britain and possible flooding in the south-west.
The arrival of around 8cm of snow from Friday night is likely to affect most of England, Scotland and Wales, with only the southern coastal counties and parts of Lincolnshire and East Anglia expected to be spared. The Met Office issued a severe weather warning with predictions of 10-15cm (4-6 ins) of snow possible in the north Midlands, north-east Wales and north-west England. Higher ground could get 20-40cm, and strong winds – up to 65mph in Scotland, 60mph in Wales and 50mph in central England – could lead to blizzard conditions.
The snow will be accompanied by strong winds of up to 65mph in Scotland, 60mph in Wales and 50mph in central England. The Environment Agency said heavy rain could lead to flooding in south-west England. It said it was monitoring river levels and expected to issue flood alerts and possibly more serious flood warnings.
Together with low temperatures hovering around 4C, it continues a miserable March. "We strongly urge people to sign up to flood warnings on the Environment Agency website, keep a close eye on local weather forecasts and be prepared for possible flooding. We also ask that people stay safe and not try to wade or drive through any deep water," the agency said.
Before the snow arrives, south-west England and Wales are due to experience flooding on Thursday caused by heavy, persistent rain. It will turn to light snow when it reaches northern Wales and northern England on Thursday night and hit Scotland by Friday morning. Between 40 and 60mm (1.6-2.4ins) of rain is expected to fall over southern Devon and Cornwall in the space of 24 hours, and up to 100mm on exposed southern slopes.
Sally Webb, a weather forecaster for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said the outlook for the next few days was bleak. Rain sweeping across Northern Ireland will turn increasingly to snow, with up to 30cm across the hills of Down and Antrim.
She said there could be more than 30mm of rain before it moved north-east and turned to snow, which could result in falls of around 3cm in north Wales and England. The AA issued warnings to motorists that even short journeys could be difficult and that there could be a repeat of the scenes in southern England last week when hundreds of drivers were stranded in their cars overnight.
"It will arrive in Scotland by dawn tomorrow which could see up to 8cm in high grounds. Elsewhere, Britain will see scattered snow, sleet and rain but nothing significant until Friday night. Darron Burness, the AA's head of special operations, said: "It's going to be a real witch's brew of driving wind, rain and snow, which will inevitably cause disruption on the roads. Drivers should be well prepared as even short journeys can quickly turn bad."Wherever you're going, take plenty of warm layers, check the travel reports before heading out and stick to the main roads where possible."
"Between 1cm and 4cm will fall quite widely across England, Wales and Scotland. More snow across Saturday and Sunday will see up to a further 8cm." The Local Government Association said council gritting and ploughing teams would be out in force to try to ensure main roads remained passable.
Peter Box, chairman of the LGA's economy and transport board, said hundreds of thousands of tonnes of salt had been spread this winter and hundreds of thousands more were available in council depots.
"Council staff will be out and about over the next few days checking in on the people they know to be vulnerable and delivering hot meals and portable heaters, collecting prescriptions, defrosting pipes, fixing frozen boilers and making sure they have what they need," Box said.
He urged residents with elderly or vulnerable family or neighbours to check in on them to make sure they were coping with the cold weather.