UK weather: Met Office issues more urgent yellow warnings for heavy snow, ice & rain with almost all of Britain on alert
Most Brits will have to battle snow and freezing temperatures on Monday
THE Met Office has issued new warnings for Monday as the freezing conditions are due to continue.
Snow and ice blanketed much of the country on Sunday as the UK continued to brace for bitter temperatures.
The latest warnings cover most of the country, particularly northern England and Scotland, where warnings for snow and ice are in place with large parts of Wales also affected.
Further south though are large parts of southern England and Wales covered by a warning for rain.
There are some early signs that things could be improving though.
Met Office chief meteorologist, Jason Kelly, said: “The first Atlantic airmass for a while is making some inroads across southern and central parts of the country bringing less cold conditions to many southern areas, whilst the cold airmass continues to hold on in the north.
“Where these two airmasses meet is the focus for continuing ice risk.
“For parts of northeast Scotland, wintry showers will bring some icy conditions overnight, as well as some accumulating snow inland.
“However further south rain will become the main hazard and a yellow warning for rain had been issued for Monday for parts of the South West.
“Warnings may well be updated over the coming days so keep up to date with the forecast in your area.”
Conditions plunged to below freezing on Sunday as amber alerts were put in place – with concerns isolated towns could be cut off from power.
Treacherous conditions on the road also saw a major incident declared as cops advised people to only travel if necessary.
Following an influx of stranded vehicles in Cumbria, the local force said: “We are continuing to see challenging conditions in Cumbria.
“Agencies across the county have been working hard and will be into the night in response to the impact of heavy snowfall.
“The snow today ended up being much more significant than forecast and the amber warning that was put in place this afternoon is in place until midnight and, with a yellow warning from snow and ice tomorrow, we expect to continue to see challenging road conditions whilst these warning are in place.
“Therefore, we continue to ask people to not travel and to only do so if absolutely necessary.”
Scotland has been warned to expect “wintry showers, with snow on hills [and] frozen surfaces may lead to some disruption to transport and infrastructure”.
A yellow weather warning for snow and ice will impact the south of Scotland near Edinburgh, all the way north to Stromness, from 5pm on Sunday until midday on Monday.
An alert for ice is also in place for the same time period for the East Mids up to Newcastle.
The Met Office is now warning of up to 60mm of rainfall in Wales and the south coast of England, near Brighton and Portsmouth, from midnight tonight until 6pm Monday.
The UK Health Security Agency and the Met Office previously issued amber cold health alerts in five regions.
Brits in the East Midlands, West Midlands, North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber are being warned to wrap up warm as bitter conditions are predicted to last until next week.
It comes after Glasgow Airport was forced to suspend ALL flights on Saturday due to “heavier than forecast snow”.
The airport said staff had planned for the freeze throughout the night, but saw more snow fall than expected.
Nine football matches in the Scottish Professional Football League were postponed while Crewe Alexandra‘s FA Cup tie against Bristol Rovers was called off.
Newcastle’s high-profile racing fixture also had to be abandoned.
