The Met Office has issued urgent ‘danger to life’ weather warnings as the UK is set to be blasted by snow in a matter of hours. The forecaster has put out the amber alerts on Thursday, February 8, with Wales, the Midlands and Yorkshire & the Humber among regions affected.
Forecasters at WXCharts say a thick blanket of snow will hit the Midlands, north of England and Scotland while the rest of the country will see wet and windy weather tomorrow.
Snowfall is expected to continue into Friday in the north of the UK with the thickest layers of snow hitting Manchester and Newcastle.
Northern Ireland and Wales are also expected to be hit with snow before the end of the week.
As well as the amber alerts, a number of yellow alerts have also been issued for other parts of the country in what are expected to be a difficult end to the week for Brits.
Met Office amber warnings for snow and ice are in place for Wales and the West Midlands, while the East Midlands, West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber are all under an amber warning for snow on Thursday.
The East Midlands, North East England, North West England, Wales, West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber regions are all under a yellow warning for snow on the day, while Northern Ireland is under a yellow warning for both snow and ice.
When issuing the warnings, the Met Office said: “Snow is expected to develop during Thursday morning and become persistent and at times heavy by the afternoon before slowly easing through the evening.
“Across the warning area, 10-15 cm of snow is expected quite widely but some places, particularly above 300 metres, may see 25 cm of snow. Strong and gusty easterly winds may lead to some drifting in places.”
It told folk in the UK not to drive in extreme weather and if absolutely necessary to do so using dipped headlights, accelerating gently, using low revs and changing to higher gears as quickly as possible.
The Met Office also urged Brits in those areas covered by amber warnings to prepare for power cuts.
It said: “People cope better with power cuts when they have prepared for them in advance. It’s easy to do; consider gathering torches and batteries, a mobile phone power pack and other essential items.”