UK weather: snow and frost causes school closures and power cuts as yellow warnings remain in place

Regions of the UK have been hit by snow and frost leading to travel disruption and school closure, with warnings that more wintery weather is heading our way.

Amber weather warnings were in place for areas of northern England and Wales on Thursday February 8, leaving dozens of schools closes and travel disruption for commuters. Power cuts also took place as the winter conditions took grip on on the region.

Schools were closed in Wales, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cumbria. Several centimeteres of snow were measured across the country, with 9cm recorded in Bingley, West Yorkshire and 10cm recorded in Kirkwall, Orkney in Scotland.

Yellow weather warnings are continuing into the weekend, with warnings for snow and ice covering most of Scotland. A warning for snow is in place stretching from the Scottish Borders, through the central belt and up towards the north-east coast, from 12pm until 3pm Friday (February 9). Another warnings for snow and ice is in place from the central belt stretching north from 3pm Friday until 6pm Saturday (February 10).

Met Office operational meteorologist Dan Stroud: “We’ve still got rain and many have snow making its way northwards, we have got further weather warnings in force. Temperatures are recovering a little, across the far south it’s generally mild.

“We’ve got a second band of cloud and rain moving northwards, it makes for challenging driving conditions. We’ve had the worst of it but it’s still not completely clear. Where we have falling snow we see there is a risk of a few icy patches on roads. The focus is probably starting to shift more towards ice, people should still be cautious.”