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Dreams of a white Christmas fell flat but a sprinkling of snow can be expected over much of the country during Easter.
Arctic winds are forecast to sweep across Britain and bring widespread frosts over the Easter weekend, with snow in eastern regions.
The threat of a white Easter, traditionally one of the busiest times of the year on the roads, will give the Met Office the chance to test its new hazardous weather alert system.
Conditions will be worst in Scotland and northern England but below-freezing temperatures and a sprinkling of snow is possible even in the South-East – alongside strong winds and driving rain. Western regions, especially the South-West, should have clearer skies but will still be subjected to freezing conditions during the night.
Under the new “traffic light” system of weather warnings the Met Office has issued a code yellow alert to advise the public to be aware of potential problems from severe weather in Scotland without needing to anticipate anything out of the ordinary.
The system, announced 24 hours early yesterday because of the need to issue the Easter alert, uses traffic light colours to alert the public to the anticipated severity of weather several days in advance. Severe weather will be categorised as yellow, an initial alert state, and amber, meaning that weather conditions could lead to people being killed, such as by falling trees.
Extreme weather will be given a similar traffic light colour scheme, with an additional level of red to indicate unusually hazardous conditions, such as more than a foot of snow or flooding.
Severe weather is not uncommon, especially during the winter, whereas extreme weather is rare and would only take place about six times a year. Graeme Leitch, of the Met Office’s public weather service, said: “We want people to understand the difference between run-of-the-mill bad weather and extreme events.”
He said that research suggested that far too many weather warnings were being issued, making it difficult for the public to distinguish between different levels of severity. The traffic light code intends to solve the problem. “The advisory alert will flag up a developing situation to allow for more preparedness farther in advance,” Mr Leitch said.
“Alerts generally will be more targeted and easier to use. The user-friendly traffic light system will provide quick and easy access to vital weather information to emergency responders and the public. The improvements have been planned for some time and respond directly to feedback from our partners from the emergency services and local authorities.”
Bruce Mann, director of civil contingencies at the Cabinet Office, said: “The weather has an enormous potential to disrupt our daily lives, as we saw [during the widespread floods] last summer. The Met Office has a front-line role – tracking developments days in advance and providing warnings to the appropriate authorities.”
Helen Chivers, of the Met Office, said that weather conditions would deteriorate across the country this week. “It looks as though we are going to have a white Easter. We’ve got northerly winds sweeping in from Thursday,” she said. “It looks like it will turn decidedly chilly and will be much colder than it has been. We will be looking at nighttime temperatures of -2C (28F) or -3C in quite a lot of rural areas.”
The Met Office is working with Network Rail, providing regular forecasts to help it to assess the possible impact on the railway.
Road agencies across the country will receive frequently updated information from the Met Office.
By Lewis Smith
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article3571905.ece
Arctic winds are forecast to sweep across Britain and bring widespread frosts over the Easter weekend, with snow in eastern regions.
The threat of a white Easter, traditionally one of the busiest times of the year on the roads, will give the Met Office the chance to test its new hazardous weather alert system.
Conditions will be worst in Scotland and northern England but below-freezing temperatures and a sprinkling of snow is possible even in the South-East – alongside strong winds and driving rain. Western regions, especially the South-West, should have clearer skies but will still be subjected to freezing conditions during the night.
Under the new “traffic light” system of weather warnings the Met Office has issued a code yellow alert to advise the public to be aware of potential problems from severe weather in Scotland without needing to anticipate anything out of the ordinary.
The system, announced 24 hours early yesterday because of the need to issue the Easter alert, uses traffic light colours to alert the public to the anticipated severity of weather several days in advance. Severe weather will be categorised as yellow, an initial alert state, and amber, meaning that weather conditions could lead to people being killed, such as by falling trees.
Extreme weather will be given a similar traffic light colour scheme, with an additional level of red to indicate unusually hazardous conditions, such as more than a foot of snow or flooding.
Severe weather is not uncommon, especially during the winter, whereas extreme weather is rare and would only take place about six times a year. Graeme Leitch, of the Met Office’s public weather service, said: “We want people to understand the difference between run-of-the-mill bad weather and extreme events.”
He said that research suggested that far too many weather warnings were being issued, making it difficult for the public to distinguish between different levels of severity. The traffic light code intends to solve the problem. “The advisory alert will flag up a developing situation to allow for more preparedness farther in advance,” Mr Leitch said.
“Alerts generally will be more targeted and easier to use. The user-friendly traffic light system will provide quick and easy access to vital weather information to emergency responders and the public. The improvements have been planned for some time and respond directly to feedback from our partners from the emergency services and local authorities.”
Bruce Mann, director of civil contingencies at the Cabinet Office, said: “The weather has an enormous potential to disrupt our daily lives, as we saw [during the widespread floods] last summer. The Met Office has a front-line role – tracking developments days in advance and providing warnings to the appropriate authorities.”
Helen Chivers, of the Met Office, said that weather conditions would deteriorate across the country this week. “It looks as though we are going to have a white Easter. We’ve got northerly winds sweeping in from Thursday,” she said. “It looks like it will turn decidedly chilly and will be much colder than it has been. We will be looking at nighttime temperatures of -2C (28F) or -3C in quite a lot of rural areas.”
The Met Office is working with Network Rail, providing regular forecasts to help it to assess the possible impact on the railway.
Road agencies across the country will receive frequently updated information from the Met Office.
By Lewis Smith
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article3571905.ece
