The Met Office has issued a new yellow warning for snow and ice in place from midnight until noon on Monday. The wide-ranging alert covers East Midlands, North East England, North West England, Wales, West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber.
A Met Office forecast said: “Snow will become more sporadic during Monday morning, though some further accumulations of a few centimetres are likely over the Pennines and perhaps the North York Moors. Icy stretches are likely to develop quite widely, making for some difficult travelling conditions.”
Heavy overnight snow is causing widespread disruption across the UK as the cold start to the new year continues. Several major airports have been forced to suspend flights while some key roads in northern England remained shut.
New Met Weather warning
Regions and local authorities affected:
Yorkshire & Humber
- East Riding of Yorkshire
- North Lincolnshire
- North Yorkshire
- South Yorkshire
- West Yorkshire
- York
North West England
- Blackburn with Darwen
- Blackpool
- Cheshire East
- Cheshire West and Chester
- Cumbria
- Greater Manchester
- Halton
- Lancashire
- Merseyside
- Warrington
East Midlands
- Derbyshire
- Nottinghamshire
North East England
- Darlington
- Durham
- Gateshead
- Hartlepool
- Middlesbrough
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- North Tyneside
- Northumberland
- Redcar and Cleveland
- South Tyneside
- Stockton-on-Tees
- Sunderland
Wales
- Conwy
- Denbighshire
- Flintshire
- Gwynedd
- Powys
- Wrexham
West Midlands
- Shropshire
- Staffordshire
- Stoke-on-Trent
- Telford and Wrekin
The Met Office also this morning issued a Yellow rain warning for London and South East England and South West England until Monday morning. Intense rain is expected to soak the region. The downpours are predicted to persist until approximately 9am on Monday.
The Met Office said some rural communities could be cut off, with up to 40cm of snow on ground above 300m before conditions ease later on Sunday.
Manchester and Liverpool John Lennon Airport both closed runways on Sunday morning due to heavy snow. Manchester Airport said its teams are working to clear them “as quickly as possible” but had been hampered by “heavy snow” around 7am.
Birmingham Airport had suspended operations for several hours overnight “for snow clearing and safety reasons”, but said it was on schedule for “business as usual” on Sunday. Bristol Airport reopened at about 11pm on Saturday but warned of ongoing delays because aircraft were out of position following flight cancellations.
All the affected airports urged passengers to check with their airline for updates. National Highways warned that up to 25cm of snow could affect roads in northern England.
Snow closed the A628 Woodhead Pass which connects Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire through the Peak District overnight in both directions between the A616 at Flouch and the A57 at Hollingworth. The A66 in County Durham and Cumbria was closed between the M6 and A1M because of the conditions, while two of four lanes on the M1 northbound between J30 Worksop and J31 Sheffield in South Yorkshire were shut after a collision involving a HGV.
National Rail said the line between Leeds and Halifax via Dewbury was closed in both directions, with disruption on northern routes expected into Monday. Avanti West Coast trains running to and from Liverpool Lime Street were cancelled due to depot issues with disruption expected until midday.
One lane of the northbound A3 in Hampshire was closed on Sunday morning due to flooding following overnight snow, National Highways said. The Environment Agency issued three flood warnings for Sunday morning on the River Taw and the River Torridge in Devon, and on the River Brue in Somerset.
The National Grid said it had been working to restore power after outages across the Midlands, south-west England and South Wales on Saturday. The company’s live map shows power cuts across the region on Sunday morning, including in Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff. Two amber weather warnings from the Met Office have been put in place in England and Wales, with 3cm to 7cm of snowfall predicted for much of the affected area, mixing with rain at times in lower-lying areas.
The Met Office said Bingley, West Yorkshire, had seen 12cm of snow up to 7am on Sunday, with Shap in Cumbria and Capel Curig, Gwynedd, both seeing 10cm. One amber warning for snow and freezing rain, which covers much of Wales and the Midlands as far north as Manchester, is in place until midday on Sunday.
Higher ground in Wales and the southern Pennines could see 15cm to 30cm of snow, the forecaster said, with milder air leading to a rapid thaw in the south of the warning area through Sunday.