An amber weather warning for snow and ice has been issued for the whole of Derbyshire. Most of the North of England is predicted to have heavy snowfall across the weekend. The forecaster has issued the warning for most of Saturday, January 4, and Sunday, January 5.
The warning will come into force at 6 p.m. on Saturday, January 4, and remain in place until midday on Sunday, January 5. The Met Office has warned that the snow and ice will lead to significant travel disruptions across the country and has warned motorists not to travel.
A spokesperson for the Met Office said: “Snow will become persistent and locally heavy as it pushes south to north across the warning area. As well as snow, a period of freezing rain is also likely bringing some hazardous travel conditions before milder air follows across all areas by Sunday morning.
“Whilst there is some uncertainty in details, 3-7 cm of snow is likely for much of the warning area, with locally 15-30 cm for the higher ground of Wales and the southern Pennines. Freezing rain could lead to ice accretion in places, especially parts of Wales, before the milder air leads to a rapid thaw of snow and ice in the south of the warning area through Sunday.”
The forecaster has also issued some travel advice for those who are planning to drive this weekend: “It is safer not to drive in these conditions, but if you need to make an essential journey, consider alternative forms of transport to keep you and others safe.
“If you must drive, do this more safely by: using dipped headlights; accelerating gently, using low revs and changing to higher gears as quickly as possible; starting in second gear to help with wheel slip; maintaining a safe and steady speed, keeping distance from other vehicles; using a low gear to go downhill, avoiding braking unless necessary; steering into skids, not taking your hands of the wheel, and avoiding slamming on brakes.”
The Met Office has stated that this warning is likely to happen and will have a medium impact as measured on its “impact matrix guide,” which allows it to indicate the severity of the warning.