Country braced for more snow and ice after coldest January in ten years
Last month was the coldest January across the UK in ten years, with more wintry weather expected to cause disruption this week.
Further yellow warnings of snow and ice have been issued by the Met Office across Scotland until Sunday afternoon with potential blizzard conditions as snow spreads into more centralised areas across Scotland nearing the end of the week.
Today and tomorrow, a yellow warning of snow will affect certain northern and southern areas of Scotland.
However, the Met Office has recently updated its weather warning to now include the central belt in the yellow snow warning from Friday beginning at midnight and remaining in place until 12pm on Sunday afternoon.
Areas affected by the snow include Central, Tayside and Fife, Grampian, Highlands, south west Scotland, Lothian Borders and the Strathclyde area.
Significant disruption from the snowy conditions is expected with potential for blizzard conditions.
Across Scotland, possible travel delays on roads are expected with possible delays or cancellations to rail and air travel and a chance rural communities could be cut off for several days. There is also a small chance that long interruptions to power supplies and other services, such as gas, water, telephone and mobile phone coverage, may occur.
A Met Office Spokesperson said: “An area of heavy rain and snow over Scotland will slowly move south over the weekend, bringing further snow accumulations, firstly over high ground in the north, but increasingly to low levels through Saturday and into Sunday.
“A further 20 to 30 cm may fall above 200 m, with 5 to 10, perhaps locally 20 cm falling even to low levels as we move into the weekend.
“Strong winds could lead to significant drifting of snow and temporary blizzard conditions.”
An amber weather warning for snow is in force across much of South Yorkshire, and parts of Derbyshire, West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester which will last until 1pm today, with between 3cm and 8cm of snow likely across the area. Forecasters said motorists who brave the roads are at risk of becoming stranded, while rail and air cancellations are likely.
Power cuts and disruption to mobile phone coverage are also expected, while rural communities face being cut off completely.
Speaking about last month being the coldest January since 2010, Dr Mark Mccarthy,
head of the Met Office's National Climate Information Centre, said: "January 2021 has been dominated by colder-than-average weather with only brief milder interludes, but what does this cold winter mean in the context of climate change and a warming planet?
"Well, a winter month as cold or colder than January 2021 used to occur in approximately seven out of ten winters through the 20th Century.
"In more recent decades this has dropped to around three in ten. So although we are still subject to cold weather in winter, these cold spells tend not to be as severe or as frequent as in the past."