Travellers warned as 100-mile wide corridor of snow moves into Britain

Updated

Travellers have been warned of potential disruption from a 100-mile wide corridor of snow moving eastwards into Britain.

The Met Office has warned of the threat of difficult driving conditions from sleet and snow, which will move from western Scotland down to southern England throughout the day.

Temperatures are expected to fall to as low as minus 10C in rural Scotland over the weekend as the winter chill sets in across the UK.

Freezing conditions will affect most parts with the Met Office issuing yellow ice warnings covering the east coast of Scotland and England as well as Wales, Northern Ireland and parts of south-west England and the Midlands.

With largely clear skies and no cloud cover, the public are being urged to take care on untreated roads and paths hit by frost.

Saturday is forecast to be frosty but many areas will stay dry and enjoy sunny spells. Wintry showers will persist in eastern areas.

Rural parts of the Highlands and Aberdeenshire will face the lowest temperatures, forecasters said, while around 5cm to 10cm (2-4in) of snow could fall on higher ground.

Traffic Scotland has issued warnings of icy conditions throughout much of the country, but snow lovers have been promised a great day on the slopes.

The Met Office said: "Outbreaks of sleet and snow will spread from the North West on Saturday, initially into western Scotland, and then into parts of north-west England later in the day before reaching the Midlands and southern England during the evening and night.

"One to three centimetres of snowfall is likely at low levels with 5-10cm possible above 200 metres across western Scotland and Cumbria.

"Ice may prove an additional hazard in places.

"Please be aware of the potential for some travel disruption and difficult driving conditions.

"A frontal zone moving eastwards into Britain on Saturday will run into and stall against the cold air mass which became established over the UK earlier in the week.

"This allows rain at the leading edge of this frontal zone to turn to snow and persist for several hours before the frontal zone weakens during Sunday, allowing less cold conditions to start developing and some of the snow to start melting.

"This snow is expected to fall along a relatively narrow corridor, perhaps only 100 miles wide, which means that some areas within the warning area may escape much of the snow.

"Meanwhile, where snow is limited or rain occurs instead, icy stretches may develop on untreated roads as rain and snow starts."

Nevis Range ski resort said it is "looking like a great day" and said it expects to be busy over the weekend, with good skiing right across the front of the hill and a mix of groomed and un-groomed runs.

Glencoe said it "should be a cracking weekend for snow sports with light winds and great snow conditions".

Cairngorm reports that all open terrain has mostly good cover of packed powdery dry snow, while most runs are complete with pisted packed snow at Glenshee.

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