A 45-hours snow warning has been issued by the Met Office for the West Midlands including Birmingham and the Black Country. The national weather service has issued a ‘yellow warning’ and said ‘heavy snow’ may hit the region this weekend, along with large swathes of the rest of the country.
The warning is in place from 12noon on Saturday (January 4) through to 9am on Monday (January 6), with ‘significant accumulations of snow are possible’ and parts of the Midlands, Wales and northern England ‘most at risk’. The snow could also turn to freezing rain as milder air hits the region, which also gives a risk of ice.
The Met Office has said the warning is in force across the whole of the West Midlands including Birmingham, the Black Country, Solihull and Coventry, including Worcestershire and Herefordshire and upto Stoke-on-Trent. It also covers most of England from the West Country and near the south coast to Newcastle., across nearly all of Wales and into Scotland.
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The forecast from the Met Office said: “Outbreaks of rain spreading north eastwards later on Saturday and overnight into Sunday will likely be preceded by a spell of snow on its northern flank.
“Whilst there is a fair bit of uncertainty as to how far north this may spread, and how long any snow will last, significant accumulations of snow are possible, especially (but not exclusively) on hills.
“Currently, parts of the Midlands, Wales and northern England are most at risk of disruption, where 5cm or more could accumulate fairly widely, with perhaps as much as 20 to 30 cm over high ground of Wales and/or the Pennines. This, accompanied by strengthening winds, may lead to drifting of lying snow.
“In addition, as milder air attempts to move northwards into southern and central areas, snow may turn to a spell of freezing rain for a time, adding to the risk of ice. If milder air is able to spread more bodily northwards, any snow in southern parts of the warning area may be relatively short-lived before turning to rain.”
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If the snow hits the region, the national weather forecaster said it will make driving conditions dangerous and cause delays. It advises any motorist heading out in the snowy weather to ‘warm clothing, food, water, a blanket, a torch, ice scraper/de-icer, a warning triangle, high visi packbility vest and an in-car phone charger)’.
The Met Office said the prediction has uncertainties and it added: “It is quite likely this warning area and start/end times will be refined over the coming days as confidence increases in areas most likely to be impacted.”