The Met Office have issued a fresh yellow weather warning covering Cumbria and the North of England for Ice from 4pm on New Years Day until 10am Thursday 2nd January.
A band of rain, sleet and hill snow will clear southwards during Wednesday afternoon and evening. As skies clear in its wake, and with standing water following earlier rain in places, ice is likely to form quite quickly on untreated surfaces, leading to difficult travel conditions.
Paul Gundersen is a Chief Forecaster for the Met Office. He said: “The coastal gales and rain in the south of the UK will ease by the late afternoon of New Year’s Day, while at the other end of the country wintry showers are starting to feed into northern Scotland.
“Northern parts of the UK are already experiencing colder conditions but by Thursday morning the much colder air will reach remaining parts of the south and southeast.
“Overnight we have a series of National Severe Weather Warnings in place with a combined yellow warning for both snow and ice for northern Scotland, while a yellow ice warning is in place as far south as the Midlands. Standing water remaining from the heavy rainfall of the last few days will freeze, creating a risk for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians navigating untreated surfaces. Wintry showers remain a hazard especially for north-facing coasts and hills.”
National Highways Gritters have been working to grit the A66 this afternoon ahead of the forecast Icy conditions.
Looking further ahead the weekend has fresh yellow warnings for heavy snow that may cause some disruption over the weekend with the yellow warning in place 10am Saturday until 9am Monday 6th January.
Dan Holley is a Deputy Chief Forecaster for the Met Office said: “At this stage there is a fair amount of uncertainty over exactly which areas will see disruptive snow, with parts of Wales, northern England and the Midlands most likely to see some impacts. Here we could see 5cm or more in quite a few areas, and perhaps as much as 20-30cm over high ground, including Wales and the Pennines. Coupled with strengthening winds this could lead to drifting, making travelling conditions difficult over higher-level routes in particular.
“We’ve currently issued a Yellow warning for snow covering a large part of England, Wales and southern Scotland to cater for possible disruption over the weekend, but it’s quite likely this will be refined over the coming days as confidence in the forecast increases. So it’s worth keeping up to date with the latest warnings.”