Snow and freezing temperatures to give way to strong winds and heavy rain as Storm Bert hits UK
The Met Office has issued several weather warnings as Storm Bert is forecast to bring a “multi-hazard event” to the UK potentially causing travel disruption and flooding.
The second named storm of the year follows a cold snap with temperatures plunging well below freezing in parts of the UK on Thursday night and Friday dawning frosty and icy.
Storm Bert is forecast to reach Britain on Saturday, and is expected to bring heavy rain, strong winds and disruptive snow to parts of the UK through the weekend.
An amber alert for heavy snow and ice will be in force between 7am and 5pm on Saturday in an area north of Scotland’s central belt, where 10-20cm is likely on ground above 200 metres and potentially as much as 20-40cm on hills above 400 metres.
The warning covers parts of Angus, Perth and Kinross, Stirlingshire, Aberdeenshire and some of the Highlands and Argyll and Bute.
Yellow wind, rain and snow warnings cover much of the rest of the UK. Wind warnings cover Scotland from 5am until 7pm on Saturday.
Rain and snow warnings cover northern England from 4am to 9am and Northern Ireland from midnight on Friday until 11am on Saturday.
Rain warnings cover much of Wales from 6am on Saturday until 6am on Sunday, and south-west England from 6am on Saturday until 11.45pm.
A wind warning also covers coastal areas of southern England from 3pm until 9pm on Saturday.
Met Office spokesman Oli Claydon said Storm Bert was a “multi-hazard event”.
“We’re looking at strong winds, some high snowfall accumulation, heavy rain, all in various different parts of the UK,” he said.
“So it’s quite a complex weather set-up for the weekend. Generally speaking, it’s a very unsettled weekend of weather ahead.”
He advised the public to keep an eye on the weather in their areas.
Temperatures dropped to minus 10C in northern Scotland on Thursday night.
The wintry weather affected education, with more than 114 schools shut in the Highland Council area on Thursday because of snow, including Inverness Royal Academy where pupils were told their prelim exams planned for the day will be rescheduled.
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At least 27 schools in Aberdeenshire were also shut while many others had delayed openings, and in Moray around 12 were closed and others opened late.
South of the border, 89 schools were shut in Devon on Thursday, 18 in Dorset and 60 in Cornwall, while in Wales around 10 were closed in Conwy, 18 in Denbighshire and two in Wrexham.
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