Heavy Snow affects high routes of Northern England and Scotland

Heavy outbreaks of sleet and snow have been fairly persistent throughout much of Tuesday across high level routes of Scotland and Northern England today.

The latest radar (courtesy of rain viewer) shows those wintry showers across much of Scotland, some very heavy, producing some nasty traveling conditions, especially on routes above 300 metres of elevation or so.

Notice that some wintry showers are affecting Southern Scotland, the borders and into Cumbria / North Yorkshire to.

 

A combination of heavy snow showers and very strong winds has produced some snow drifts in places, for example the A6 in Shap, Cumbria, has been severely affected by snow drifting leading to impassable conditions here. The A57 Snake road and A628 Woodhead pass road have also been affected by wintry conditions, however these routes are passable with care.

Heavy snow has also fallen around the Fleet moss area of North Yorkshire, with significant accumulations and drifting leading to near impassable or impassable conditions on routes above 400 metres of elevation, however routes to lower levels are largely passable.

The Met Office Amber warning for heavy snowfall remains in force for parts of the Southern Uplands for further heavy snow showers tonight, with a wider yellow “be aware” warning in force for much of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Pennine areas of Northern England.

Further wintry showers are expected to fall this evening and overnight producing significant accumulations on routes above 300 metres of elevation. Up to 15cm may fall on routes above 450-500 metres, leading to a high risk of travel disruption. Again, the strong winds are expected to continue overnight, leading to a risk of snow drift formation on these high routes. To lower levels, a mixture of rain, sleet and hail is likely, however spells of wet snow can’t be ruled out and may produce some temporary slushy accumulations even down to 100-200 metres of elevation.