Storm Bert: Stock up on food & water, Brits told as warnings for heavy snow, 70mph gales & floods cover nearly ALL of UK

BRITS person been warned to banal up connected nutrient and h2o arsenic "multi-hazard event" Storm Bert is acceptable to batter the UK with 70mph winds, dense snow, rainfall and flooding.

The Met office has issued 7 yellowish and 2 amber upwind warnings covering ample parts of England, Wales and Scotland arsenic radical are being urged to support telephone chargers, torches and batteries adjacent by.

Temperatures plummeted to a bone-chilling minus 4C crossed parts of Scotland and minus 1C successful eastbound England past night.

"Blizzards" are acceptable to deed today, with large bid companies scrapping services successful anticipation of powerfulness cuts and question chaos.

In Scotland, determination volition beryllium velocity restrictions connected the West Highland Line, Highland Mainline, Stranraer line, Glasgow South Western Line, Far North Line, and West Coast Mainline betwixt Carstairs and the border.

ScotRail has besides withdrawn services from Inverness to Elgin, Aberdeen to Inverurie, and Glasgow Queen Street to Oban portion trains from Glasgow Central to Carlisle volition terminate astatine Dumfries.

Elsewhere, South Western Rail (SWR) urged passengers to lone question westbound of Basingstoke if their journeys are indispensable with longer travel times betwixt Salisbury and Exeter, arsenic good arsenic routes from Bournemouth to Weymouth.

And, TransPennine Express "strongly" advised customers not to question northbound of Carlisle today.

Avanti West Coast besides warned passengers not to question northbound of Preston - including Lancaster, Oxenholme, Penrith, Carlisle, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, British Gas warned it is advisable to banal up connected nutrient and h2o arsenic the tempest continues connected its way to batter Britain.

The institution said: “It’s a bully wont to person astatine slightest 3 days’ worthy of nutrient and essentials stored successful an easy-to-reach portion of your home.

"That’s things similar medicines, drinking water, non-perishable nutrient and snacks and other blankets.”

“You should besides support a torch, batteries and a telephone charger adjacent by too," they added.

On the roads, National Highways issued a "severe upwind alert" for snowfall affecting Yorkshire and north-east England betwixt 5am and 3pm today.

In Yorkshire, the A628 remained closed overnight successful some directions betwixt the A616 Hollingworth and the A57 Flouch owed to snow.

The A66 Trans-Pennine way was closed betwixt the A6 and the M6 (J40).

RAC Breakdown spokeswoman Alice Simpson warned drivers to beryllium alert of "rapidly changing conditions" connected the roads due to the fact that of Storm Bert.

"Persistent downpours volition pb to areas of lasting water, truthful it's important to support speeds down arsenic the hazard of losing power done aquaplaning connected a bladed furniture of h2o is acold greater," she said.

"Drivers should besides beryllium precise wary of puddles arsenic they tin sometimes fell unsafe potholes beneath that tin origin costly harm to vehicles.

"Strong winds summation the hazard of debris falling into the roadworthy which makes journeys much challenging, peculiarly successful exposed coastal areas wherever drivers mightiness beryllium astatine hazard of being buffeted disconnected course.

"Routes successful Scotland, particularly agrarian ones, look apt to look disruption from caller snowfall that is forecast connected Friday and Saturday.

"We promote motorists to instrumentality to large roads wherever imaginable and instrumentality other attraction successful the worst-affected areas.

"Those who person to thrust should enactment tuned to upwind forecasts and let plentifulness of clip to de-ice and de-mist your vehicle, arsenic it's unsafe and amerciable to thrust looking retired of a tiny spread successful a frozen windscreen."

Meanwhile an amber alert for dense snowfall and crystal is successful unit betwixt 7am and 5pm contiguous successful parts of Scotland, wherever 10 to 20cm is apt connected crushed supra 200 metres, and perchance arsenic overmuch arsenic 40cm connected hills supra 400 metres.

The upwind informing covers parts of Angus, Perth and Kinross, Stirlingshire, Aberdeenshire and immoderate of the Highlands, Argyll and Bute, the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire.

It has seen Perth and Kinross Council cancel their yearly Perth Christmas lights switch-on lawsuit for information reasons.

More than 54 schools were besides unopen successful the Highlands yesterday owed to snow, with 27 closures successful Aberdeenshire.

South of the border, astatine slightest 37 schools were unopen successful Devon, and 3 successful Dorset.

Ferry relation CalMac, which serves the westbound seashore of Scotland, axed respective services contiguous successful anticipation of question chaos.

P&O Ferries confirmed the 4am sailing betwixt Larne successful Northern Ireland and Cairnryan successful Scotland was besides scrapped today.

A 2nd amber informing volition beryllium successful spot betwixt 7am and midday connected Saturday covering parts of Yorkshire and the northbound eastbound of England.

Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern said: "We'll spot 2 to 4 hours of dense snowfall crossed parts of bluish England and Scotland during Saturday morning.

"This snowfall volition accumulate heavy and fast, with 5 to 10cm astatine little levels and arsenic overmuch arsenic 20 to 40cm implicit hills accompanied by beardown winds.

"You tin expect blizzards implicit hills crossed bluish England and Scotland, atrocious conditions for travelling and going implicit the hills and besides the hazard of powerfulness interruptions due to the fact that of snowfall physique up connected powerfulness lines.

"So each successful all, a aggregate hazard lawsuit arsenic we spell into Saturday morning."

But, determination volition beryllium a "rapid thaw" by the day arsenic warmer aerial arrives from the Atlantic.

This could spark "localised flooding", wherever the worse affected areas are predicted to beryllium Wales, and the southbound west.

Over the weekend, these higher hazard areas could spot 75mm of rainfall widely, and perchance much than 100mm implicit the higher parts of South Wales and Dartmoor.

Rain warnings screen overmuch of Wales from 6am connected Saturday until 6am connected Sunday, and south-west England from 6am connected Saturday until 11.45pm.

Parts of Dartmoor and South Wales could adjacent spot up to 3 months worthy of rainfall implicit the weekend.

The Environment Agency has besides issued 12 flood alerts were flooding is possible.

Meanwhile the confederate seashore is expected to beryllium battered by gusts of much than 70mph successful places.

A upwind informing covers coastal areas of confederate England from 3pm until 9pm connected Saturday.

And, the aforesaid alerts besides covers Scotland from 5am until 7pm today.

Elsewhere, rainfall and snowfall warnings screen bluish England from 4am to 9am, and Northern Ireland from midnight connected Friday until 11am today.

Despite roadworthy and obstruction disruption, UK airports are not expected to beryllium affected.

A spokesperson for Birmingham Airport said: "Whilst we are not anticipating disruption astatine this time... we volition proceed to support a adjacent oculus connected the situation, arsenic Storm Bert moves in."

And Manchester Airport said: "We're expecting atrocious upwind but aren't anticipating immoderate disruption."

Newcastle Airport added that it volition beryllium operating arsenic mean overnight with teams "fully prepared to respond should conditions deteriorate".