Heavy rain and thawing snow are combining to bring flooding across the UK as Storm Bert continues to batter the country.
More than 200 flood alerts are in place for England, Wales and Scotland overnight on Saturday and Met Office yellow warnings for rain and wind covering large swathes of the country are in force into Sunday.
Milder temperatures are causing the snow which covered the north of England and much of Scotland to melt.
Dozens of red flood warnings have been issued in England, meaning flooding is expected and residents and business owners should “act now”, according to the Environment Agency (EA).
The Met Office said Storm Bert is likely to cause “dangerous coastal conditions” and disruption across southern England and parts of Wales until 9pm on Sunday with a yellow wind warning in place.
The national weather service has warned some communities may be cut off by flooded roads, particularly in the west of England.
Heavy and persistent rain is set to hit the south-west of England into Sunday, with a chance that some places over Dartmoor could see 100-150mm of rainfall, the Met Office said.
Strong winds will exacerbate the impact of heavy rain across the country.
Travel disruption continues into Sunday and ferry operator DFDS has cancelled services on some routes until Monday, including its Newhaven to Dieppe sailings.
It comes after as much as 64.4mm of rain fell in Capel Curig, north Wales, in 12 hours on Saturday and wind gusts of up to 82mph were recorded in the Welsh village.
Three people have died during Storm Bert, all motorists.
One man in his 60s died after a tree fell on the car he was driving in Hampshire on Saturday morning.
In West Yorkshire, a 34-year-old man from Bradford was killed after the car he was driving collided with a wall in Shipley.
Meanwhile in Northamptonshire, a man in his 40s died in a crash on the A45 near Flore.
Northamptonshire Police said the collision, at around 8.20am on Saturday, involved a silver Toyota Corolla and a dark grey Hyundai i30 Active.
Meanwhile, five adults and five children were rescued after a landslide in Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, near Llangollen in Wales.
A North Wales Fire and Rescue Services spokesman said they were all assessed by ambulance services away from the scene “somewhere warm”.
Tens of thousands of homes have been without power and roads have been closed due to snowfall and the storm is expected to cause further travel chaos and flooding.
Winds of up to 82mph have been recorded and 13cm of snow fell in some parts of the country on Saturday morning, the Met Office said as it warned of the challenging conditions of the “multi-hazard weather event”.
Capel Curig in Gwynedd, Wales, saw the highest total rainfall with 64.4mm of rainfall recorded, the Met Office said.
National Highways issued a “severe weather alert” for snow affecting Yorkshire and north-east England between 5am and 3pm on Saturday, while rail companies urged passengers to avoid travelling to certain areas and some warned of reduced services.
Yellow wind, rain and snow warnings cover most of the rest of the UK on Saturday and into Sunday.
In the Midlands, south-west England and South Wales 4,000 homes have been affected by power outages and 27,000 customers have been impacted in the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire.
Ross Easton, of Energy Networks Association (ENA), warned the worst is yet to come.
Mr Easton said: “Forecasters are describing this as a ‘multi-hazard event’ with the worst of the weather yet to arrive, and so our members have extra engineers and contact centre teams available, and control rooms are monitoring the storm closely as it develops.”
The Environment Agency had 27 flood warnings, where flooding is expecting, in place across the country on Saturday evening.
A further 157 flood alerts, where flooding is possible, were active.
The warnings follow the closure of nearly 200 schools and nurseries earlier this week as Scotland, England and Wales faced freezing temperatures on Thursday and overnight into Friday.
Up to 75mm of rainfall is anticipated in Wales and the South West over the weekend, with potentially more than 100mm expected across the higher parts of South Wales and Dartmoor.
Wind warnings cover Scotland from midday Sunday until 11.59pm and coastal areas of southern England until 9pm.
Strong winds and gusts of more than 70mph are set to strike parts of the southern coast.
Flights have been disrupted at Newcastle Airport as the storm brought heavy snow to the North East.
The airport’s online departure board shows many flights set to depart this morning have been delayed, with the 930am British Airways service to Heathrow being cancelled.
The airport said in a post on X: “Due to Storm Bert, the airport has had continuous, heavy snow this morning.
“Our snow team is operational and are working hard to keep any disruption to a minimum and we will provide a further update later this morning.
“Passengers are advised to visit our website for the latest flight information and to contact their airline directly if they have any queries.”
Lothian Buses – the largest municipal bus operator in the UK – said it has had to suspend its services in Edinburgh and surrounding areas due to the weather.
“Due to adverse weather across the network, buses are unable to continue due to safety concerns,” the company said.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused, and thank you for your patience while our teams work to assess routes.”
Lothian Buses operates 700 buses on more than 70 routes.
National Highways has said that “blizzard conditions” are expected and up to five hours of heavy snow is set to “accumulate quickly at all levels” as it issued a severe weather alert for Yorkshire and north-east England.
It has advised drivers to plan ahead and allow for extra travelling time.
“Storm Bert will bring rain and strong winds north-eastwards on today between 5am and 3pm, the rain preceded by a period of disruptive snow over parts of northeast England,” it said.
“While snow is expected to turn to rain from the south, three to five hours of heavy snow is expected and accumulate quickly at all levels, leading to significant travel disruption.
“As the snow turns to rain, a rapid thaw is expected to set in as temperatures quickly rise with localised flooding possible.”
In Yorkshire, the A628 remained closed overnight in both directions between the A616 Hollingworth and the A57 Flouch due to snow, National Highways said. The A66 Trans-Pennine route was also closed between the A6 and the M6 (J40).
Avanti West Coast, which runs the West Coast mainline services, cancelled its services north of Preston all day on Saturday.
Speed restrictions were implemented across Scotland, affecting the West Highland Line, Highland Mainline, Stranraer line, Glasgow South Western Line, Far North Line, and West Coast Mainline between Carstairs and the border.
Perth and Kinross Council cancelled its annual Perth Christmas lights switch-on event over safety and travel concerns.
More than 60,000 homes and businesses throughout Ireland were without power on Saturday morning as the storm brought torrential rain and winds gusting close to 110kmh overnight.
Ferry operator DFDS cancelled its services on some routes until Monday, with sailings from Newhaven to Dieppe and Dover to Calais being severely impacted.
CalMac, a ferry operator serving Scotland’s west coast, also cancelled several sailings on Saturday.
P&O Ferries said it had cancelled the 4am sailing between Larne in Northern Ireland and Cairnryan in Scotland’s south west on Saturday.
A Championship football match in Lancashire has also been postponed due to torrential rain.
Blackburn Rovers were set to face Portsmouth at Ewood Park at 3pm on Saturday, but the match was delayed to a later date.
In a post on X, Blackburn Rovers said: “Due to an unplayable pitch caused by torrential rain, today’s match against Portsmouth at Ewood Park has been postponed by the match official.
“We will announce details of the rearranged fixture in due course.”
With PA
