UK weather: Alerts issued for snow, heavy rain and wind at start of week

Weather warnings for snow, wind and heavy rain have been issued for the start of the week.

Met Office forecaster Marco Petagna said a fresh wave of bad weather was on the way overnight from Sunday.

He said: “I’m afraid we hold onto unsettled weather conditions across the UK over the next few days. We will see spells of wet and windy weather at times and there’ll be some snow in the north at times too.

“Monday looks unsettled across all areas. We’ll see wet and windy weather sweeping from the southwest – gales or severe gale-force winds in place, and some snow towards the north of the UK.”

Weather warnings for snow across Scotland, snow and rain across northern England and snow across Northern Ireland have been issued for Monday.

Some of the worst-hit areas will be those already affected by flooding over the last few weeks.

A weather warning is in place for South Wales, one of the worst-affected areas, as a fresh band of heavy rain moved into the South West of England and Wales on Sunday morning.

The number of flood warnings in force across England and Wales has increased as more heavy rain, gale-force winds and snow is forecast.

As of 2pm on Sunday, 83 flood warnings, meaning immediate action is needed, were in place for England across an area from Dorset to Carlisle.

The number of flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible, stood at 176.

In Wales, which has seen some of the worst flooding during Storms Ciara and Dennis, there are 17 warnings and 27 alerts.

As those already hit by this winter’s deluges continue to clean up, Environment Secretary George Eustice said the government can’t protect every home and admitted the problem is going to worsen.

He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge it’s “inevitable that we’re going to get more of these extreme weather events”, as “with climate change” they are becoming more frequent.

“All we can really do is improve our flood defences and improve our flood response,” he said.

An Environment Agency spokesman said the further expected heavy rain meant that “flood risk continues, with the impacts of stormy weather continuing to be felt across England”.

He said: “Further rain is expected over the weekend and during Monday, this heavy and persistent across parts of the North of England.

“This could lead to further flooding, particularly for rivers draining the Pennines, and for parts of the Midlands and the city of York where this rain will fall on saturated catchments where river levels are already high.

“River levels remain high and ongoing river flooding is probable for the River Severn this weekend and into next week.”

(c) Sky News 2020: UK weather: Alerts issued for snow, heavy rain and wind at start of week