Weather warning for heavy snow issued by Met Office in north west

It comes as the Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for wintery weather across the north west of England.

The warning will come into effect from 3am on Thursday morning, and it will remain in force through to 6pm on Friday evening.

Forecasters say heavy snow has the potential to cause ‘significant disruption’, with a chance that long delays and cancellations could occur on bus, rail and air travel routes.

There is also a chance that roads may become blocked by deep snow, with many stranded vehicles and passengers.

Meteorologists have warned that there is a small chance that communities could be cut off for several days.

In addition, long interruptions to power supplies and other services, such as gas, water, telephone and mobile phone coverage, may occur.

A Met Office spokesman said: “Snow could develop quite widely across the warning area on Thursday and Friday, as a potentially quite deep area of low pressure moves across the UK.

“Parts of Northern Ireland, north Wales and northern England are currently expected to see the worst of the conditions on Thursday.

“Parts of Scotland and northern England will then see the heaviest snow on Friday.

“Event totals could bring 5cm to 10cm of snow to many locations, even at low elevations, with potentially 15cm to 20cm accumulating across the northern portion of the warning area.

“Higher elevations of the north Pennines, southern uplands, higher parts of the central belt and the southern highlands may see as much as 30cm to 40cm of snow in places.

“In addition, there is potential for strong winds, which may lead to blizzard conditions and drifting of lying snow.”