UK snow: travel chaos ahead of weekend as Storm Larisa batters UK with blizzards
Drivers on the M62 motorway were stuck for more than seven hours in miles-long tailbacks
Storm Larisa has caused chaos in the UK today (10 March) with gale-force winds and blizzard blighting much of the country.
Three amber warnings were issued by the Met Office for northern England, the Midlands, North Wales and Northern Ireland, while four yellow warnings for snow also cover much of the UK. Travel was heavily affected by conditions across the country, including drivers on the M62 motorway in Greater Manchester and Yorkshire left stranded for more than seven hours.
Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said the storm, which has been named by the French weather service, is bringing rain and snow to the UK. He said: “Storm Larisa, which Meteo France have named, is the same low pressure system that is bringing us the bands of rain.
“But essentially, we’re on the northern side of the low pressure system and it’s the southern side of that low pressure system that is going to be bringing particularly strong winds to parts of France.
“So that did originate out in the Atlantic and then it tracked its way eastward towards us, and the weather fronts that are swirling around that low pressure system have then been pushing into the cold air that has been in places across the UK and allowing that rain to start falling as snow across several areas.”
Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said a pocket of western Scotland covering Glasgow and the county of Argyll may be the only region untouched by heavy rain and snow over the next 24 hours.
He warned that the worst of the weather is expected in north-west Wales and northern England, where “gusts of easily 50mph” are on a collision course with “30 to 40cm of snow”.