A huge wall of snow is making it’s way to the Lancashire this weekend and will bring day days of weather chaos across the UK.
A two-day yellow weather warning for snow and ice has been issued by the Met Office with ‘heavy snow’ and freezing rain forecast. The UKHSA has also issued rare amber cold weather health alerts for all of England ahead of a week of low temperatures.
They came into effect at 12pm on Thursday (January 2) and will last until 12pm on January 8. It means a rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions, is likely, the UKHSA said.
Temperatures could fall as low as -8C on Thursday night in northern England, the Met Office said, with a separate yellow weather warning for ice covering most of Lancashire in place from 5pm today until 10am on Friday. The latest weather maps for Friday evening show outbreaks of snow in Burnley and Rossendale from around 11pm.
A wall of snow stretching over 300 miles is then expected to hit the whole of Lancashire by 9pm on Saturday (January 4). The weather system will continue until midnight on Sunday with eastern and northern parts of the county worst affected.
Met Office forecast at 6am on Sunday
The snow will clear by 3am on Monday morning (January 6) before isolated flurries return to the east of Burnley at around 9pm. The Met Office’s outlook for this weekend states: “Isolated wintry showers on Saturday.
“Sleet and snow arriving into Sunday, perhaps heavy and disruptive in places and maybe lingering into Monday. Staying cold with a risk of ice.”
About 5cm of snow is expected widely across northern England, the Midlands and Wales with as much as 20-30cm over high ground in Wales and the Pennines, the forecaster added.
Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said: “At the moment we’ve issued a very large snow warning for Saturday until Monday but it doesn’t mean that everywhere within that warning could see snow, it’s just a heads-up there could be some impacts.”
Met Office forecast at 12pm on Sunday
Age UK director Caroline Abrahams said the Government’s decision to limit the winter fuel allowance to only the poorest pensioners will be put “into sharp relief” by the cold snap. Ms Abrahams said the charity had already been contacted by older people “worrying about what to do when this moment arrived”.
From this winter, only people on pension credit or certain other benefits will receive the winter fuel payments while more than nine million others are set to be stripped of the allowance.
“We urge older people to do everything they can to stay warm, even if that means risking spending more on their heating than they feel they can afford,” the charity director said. “The energy companies are under an obligation to help if you are struggling and there may be support available from your local council too.”
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