Snow and ice warnings issued as Arctic air blows in

Warnings of snow and ice have been issued for the north of the UK as Arctic air blows in, with up to 10cm (nearly 4in) predicted in some areas.

The Met Office yellow warnings will be in force in most of Scotland from 4pm on Thursday until midday on Friday, and in northern England from 7pm on Thursday until midday the following day.

On Wednesday, yellow warnings of rain which may lead to flooding are in place in part of western Scotland and in the east from Aberdeenshire down to Fife until midnight.

Later in the week, forecasters warn that snow showers and icy roads could lead to some travel disruption.

South of the border, the UK Health Security Agency has issued a yellow cold health alert for East Midlands, West Midlands, North East, North West, Yorkshire and The Humber.

The Met Office predicts that in Scotland snow showers affecting high ground are expected to start falling to low levels through Thursday evening and overnight.

By Friday morning there may be 1-2cm on low ground while on hills above 300 metres (984ft) accumulations of 2-5cm are possible, and up to 10cm “very locally”.

The warning covers all of Scotland apart from westerly parts of the Hebrides and Argyll and Bute.

In England snow is expected to fall initially over higher hills, before starting to fall at lower levels through Thursday evening.

Forecasters predict that any settling snow will mainly be confined to high ground, with 2-5cm (up to 2in) is possible above 200 metres (656ft), while a few locations above 300 metres may see as much as 10cm.

The rain and snow is expected to clear south during the early hours of Friday with temperatures expected to fall quickly as skies clear, leading to ice on untreated surfaces.

The warning covers North East and North West England, part of the Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber.

Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said: “Currently we’ve got warnings out for parts of Scotland, particularly the east and parts of the south-west west of Glasgow. Those are rain warnings, but increasingly, there will be a bit of snow mixed in with those as the conditions start to cool.

“Over the next few days, and beginning in northern Scotland really from today, we’ll start to see an incursion of an air mass called Arctic maritime air, and that will bring temperatures down.

“That will begin to extend down southwards from Scotland into parts of northern England, possibly getting further south than that by the weekend.

“There may be some snow showers to lower levels. So the snow and ice warnings that we’ve issued at the moment cover pretty much Scotland and Northern parts of England. There may be some snow showers a little bit further south than that.

“We’re not expecting any particularly impactful snow and the conditions will be quite brief before we get another system coming in from the Atlantic over the weekend, but for the next few days, it will feel quite a bit different, as we’ve got colder air coming in.”

On Wednesday, forecasters warn that rain, likely to be heavy at times, will persist across eastern Scotland during the day and predict that this may lead to some disruption and possible flooding as it comes after recent rainfall.

They predict that a further 15-25mm may fall quite widely, with potential for another 30-40mm building up over high ground.

Snow is likely to fall above 300-400 metres, especially across Aberdeenshire, Angus and Perthshire, where 5-10cm of snow may accumulate by the end of Wednesday.

The warning in the east covers Angus, Dundee, Fife, Perth and Kinross, Stirling, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire while in the west it covers Argyll and Bute, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has issued three flood warnings and seven flood alerts.

South of the border, the Environment Agency is urging people to remain vigilant to the risk of significant flooding.

There were 89 flood warnings and 150 flood alerts in place across the country on Wednesday afternoon.