2 days Ago By Jon King
A huge band of snow is set to sweep across the UK for 72 hours, the latest weather maps show. Snow moves up from the south from 9am on Saturday and spreads north-easterly across Wales, the Midlands, Northern Ireland, the north of England and parts of Scotland, according to maps generated today (January 2) by WX Charts. As the band moves off across the North Sea, as much as 10cm of snow could fall in some parts of the UK before it clears from most of the country by 9am on Monday.
WX Charts' timings correspond more or less to the Met Office 's yellow weather warning for snow , which comes into effect at midday on Saturday and continues until 9am on Monday. The forecaster's warning applies to the East Midlands, East of England, London, South East England, North East England, North West England, South West Scotland, South West England, Wales, the West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber. Dan Holley, a Deputy Chief Forecaster at the Met Office , said an Atlantic frontal system is likely to move across parts of central and southern Britain through the weekend.
He added: "With milder, moisture-laden air engaging with the cold conditions already in place this may bring a spell of snow in some areas, before possibly turning back to rain in the south. "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." Mr Holley said there could be 5cm or more and perhaps as much as 20-30cm over high ground in these parts, including in Wales and the Pennines.
The forecaster said: "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.
" The advice comes after an ice warning was in force for much of the UK this morning, with temperatures dropping and a major incident declared due to flooding. The yellow Met Office warning indicated there could be some difficult travel conditions across Scotland, Northern Ireland and North Wales, stretching down to the Midlands until 10am. A snow and ice warning was also in place covering northern Scotland until 10am, as rain turning to snow was thought likely to lead to some travel disruption and difficult driving conditions.
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