UK weather: Met Office issues warnings as torrential rain sweeps across south England - and snow hits north

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for rain as the UK is set for an unsettled and colder weekend. The rain weather warning is in place until 3pm today (Friday 1 March) covering parts of south-west and southern England.

A band of rain will move across the region, lashing cities such as Plymouth, Cardiff, Bath and Swansea in Wales, with the heaviest rain in the morning. Around 10 to 15 mm of rainfall is likely, with perhaps 30 mm in a few locations. The forecaster has warned people to brace for travel chaos with spray and flooding on roads making journeys longer.

While there is torrential rain down south, the north is facing snow warnings. The west of Northern Ireland, including Omagh and Enniskillen, was put under a yellow warning for snow early this morning and the warning lasted until 10am. 

An area of rain, sleet and snow will be slow moving across much of Northern Ireland this morning. The Met Office said: "Some slushy accumulations of 1-2cm are possible to sea level this morning. Some places above 100m altitude could see 2-5cm, and a few higher spots could perhaps see as much as 8cm of snow before conditions improve this afternoon.” 

A spokesperson for Translink said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, this morning that "all services operated by Enniskillen are currently suspended... due to extreme weather conditions". The police said they had received several reports of vehicles becoming stuck in heavy overnight snow in and around Enniskillen.

Met Office meteorologist Annie Shuttleworth said the weather will remain cold this week before it improves on Sunday (3 March). She said: “This coming weekend is going to be feeling quite chilly,” she said. “For many of us, it will be quite unsettled, particularly through Saturday. We have got this cold Arctic air with us from Friday and that will last all the way through the weekend.”