A severe weather alert for ice in much of North Wales has been issued by the Met Office. More wintry showers are expected over the region tonight (Tuesday, January 7) with ice forming on untreated roads and pavements.
The forcaster said temperatures are expected to plunge to -5C in parts of Wales overnight, bringing a “significant risk of ice”. At the same time, 1cm-2cm of snow could accumulate above 200 metres before the wintery showers ease.
By issuing the yellow warning, the Met Office aims to highlight the increased risk of people slipping and falling. The alert comes into force at 5pm this evening and will remain in place until 12pm tomorrow (Wednesday). Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox.
Met Office chief forecaster Jason Kelly said: “With cold weather persisting across the UK this week, we have a number of severe weather warnings for wintry hazards. Snow showers will continue to fall over Scotland, Northern Ireland and into Northern Wales and northern England too.
“Where surface water and snow freeze overnight there is a risk of ice as temperatures widely dip below freezing. There will however be good spells of sunshine for those away from northern coasts, though it’ll still feel cold in the northerly breeze.”
As daytime temperature nudge above zero this week, there will be an ongoing flooding risk in parts of the UK from rain and snow melt. A flood warning is current in place for the River Wye at Monmouth and there are six less severe flood alerts in force for the rest of Wales. Sign up now for the latest news on the North Wales Live Whatsapp community
Icicles form at the Sgwd Gwladys falls
(Image: Rowan Griffiths/Daily Mirror)
In England, Leicestershire is seeing significant river flooding already and this is set to continue, said Stefan Laeger, flood duty manager at the Environment Agency. He added: “Minor river flooding probable in some other parts of the country, continuing through to Thursday for some larger rivers.
“We urge people to remain vigilant over the next few days and advise anyone travelling to be especially careful and urge people to stay away from swollen rivers and not to drive through flood water as just 30cm of flowing water is enough to move your car.”
Temperatures are predicted to fall further on Wednesday night, bringing the risk of more ice. The Met Office expects things to turn milder by Sunday. Before then, Wales is set for isolated showers on Thursday and outbreaks of rain and hill snow on Friday and Saturday.
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