New Year's Eve weather chaos: Snow, 75mph winds and rain set to sweep UK as revellers told 'do not travel'

29 December 2023, 18:22

Snow, strong winds and heavy rain will sweep the UK this weekend, causing weather chaos for New Year's Eve revellers.

The Met Office issued yellow weather warnings for wind, rain and snow over the weekend, with large swathes of the UK set to be affected.

Southern England and Wales will face strong winds between 11am on Saturday and 3am on Sunday, with gusts of 50mph expected. They could even reach 75mph in coastal areas in the west and south.

Rain warnings are also in place for Northern Ireland and Wales.

Torrential downpours are expected to cause flooding, power cuts and travel disruption across roads, trains, planes and ferries.

Meanwhile, Scotland is set to be hit by snow, with up to 10cm expected across higher ground and 3cm on lower ground.

It comes after Storm Gerrit caused chaos throughout this week. The Met Office said its Irish counterpart, Met Eireann, could even name another storm - Storm Henk.

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Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said: "The weather looks like it will be unsettled with further strong winds and heavy rain as we go through the last weekend of 2023.

"A deep area of low pressure is set to push its way in from the west, this low could be named Storm Henk by the Irish Met Service, Met Éireann, because it is likely to be across the Republic of Ireland where we see the strongest winds.

"Nonetheless, Saturday is going to turn wet and windy across the UK, this band of intense rain is going to push its way east and north-eastwards as we go through the day bringing strong winds with it, the risk of gales or even severe gales in exposed spots.

"As well as the rain we are also likely to see some significant snow across northern areas particularly over the higher grounds in Scotland.

"For the highest ground we could see 10-20cm of snow building up, and even for some lower levels there’s potential for some snow accumulation. Even as low as 100m up we could see some slushy snow.

"So, likely to see travel disruption again because of the wind, the rain and some snow, like we have seen over some recent days."

New Year's revellers have been warned to travel early to avoid travel chaos over the weekend.

LNER suffered disruption on Friday due to "severe weather", with strong winds affecting parts of the East Coast Main Line. It meant a service due to run from Aberdeen to London King's Cross started from Newcastle.

There has also been widespread disruption to rail services due to staffing shortages.

A shortage of train crew at Edinburgh meant CrossCountry cancelled a number of trains to and from the station.

Avanti West Coast axed several of it services to and from London Euston due to a staff shortage.

Northern, which is also controlled by the Government, said it will run no services on six lines on Sunday - New Year's Eve - due to "train crew unavailability".

The affected routes with a "Do Not Travel" alert connect Manchester Victoria with Chester and Stalybridge, Manchester Piccadilly with Chester via Altrincham, and Preston with Colne.

There will also be no trains between Morecambe and Lancaster, or Clitheroe and Bolton.

Services on other lines will finish earlier than usual at around 4pm.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "While staffing is a matter for industry, we are working with them to ensure they are able to deliver the services that passengers need, making clear that we will hold them to account if they let passengers down."