Storm Goretti is set to bring heavy snow and strong winds to large parts of England and Wales this week, prompting the Met Office to issue yellow weather warnings. The snow warning runs from 6pm on Thursday until midday on Friday, affecting areas including Sheffield, Peterborough, Bath, and Worcester, as well as much of Wales. This comes just days after the UK experienced its coldest night of the winter so far.
The Met Office expects snowfall of 5-10cm in some areas, with accumulations of up to 20cm possible in certain locations, particularly over higher ground. A separate yellow warning for strong winds covers south-west England, including Cornwall, Devon, and the Isles of Scilly, from 3pm on Thursday until just before midnight.
The storm, named Goretti by Meteo France, is being driven by a deep area of low pressure moving across southern Britain. The Met Office warned: «Storm Goretti likely to bring heavy snow leading to disruption and difficult travelling conditions.» The system was named by the French meteorological service because «the strongest winds associated with Storm Goretti are most likely over northern France.»
Travel disruption and school closures
Transport services are already feeling the impact of the severe winter weather. National Rail has warned of service cancellations and disruption across the network. Train operator LNER advised customers to avoid travel between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, with no trains running between the two cities until after 2pm and no service at stations north of Edinburgh.
Hundreds of schools across Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland were forced to close on Tuesday morning due to the conditions. Breakdown companies AA and RAC are experiencing high demand as motorists struggle with the wintry conditions.
Health alerts extended
The UK Health Security Agency has extended amber cold health alerts for England until Sunday, warning that the adverse temperatures could affect health and wellbeing. The Met Office urged people to prepare for potential disruptions: «People cope better when they have prepared in advance for the risk of power cuts or being cut off from services and amenities due to the snow. It's easy to do; consider gathering torches and batteries, a mobile phone power pack and other essential items,»
The severe weather follows the coldest night of winter overnight on Monday, when temperatures dropped to minus 12.5°C in Marham, Norfolk. Other areas recorded similarly frigid temperatures, with minus 11.2°C in Dalwhinnie, Scotland, minus 10.7°C in Tulloch Bridge, Scotland, and minus 9.6°C in Bala, North Wales. Loch Glascarnoch in Scotland saw 36cm of snowfall.
Icy patches are expected to persist into Wednesday across various parts of the UK, with yellow warnings for ice remaining in place until 10am or 11am across much of England, Wales, and Scotland.
Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
