‘Good chance’ rural areas will be cut off as up to 30cm of snow expected amid amber warnings and temperatures plunging to -9C

The severe weather conditions will bring significant disruption across central England, Wales and northern regions, with as many as nine warnings in place through the weekend.

An amber warning for snow and rare freezing rain has been issued for most of Wales and central England from 6pm today until midday on Sunday.

The warning covers the Midlands and major cities including Liverpool and Manchester – with residents told to brace for power cuts and outages across other services like mobile phone coverage.

The Met Office warns that significant disruption is likely across these regions as the severe weather system moves through.

Lower-lying areas may see snow mixing with rain during this period, forecasters have said.

A second amber warning covers most of northern England, including Leeds, Sheffield and the Lake District, from 9pm today until midnight on Sunday.

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Forecasters predict widespread snowfall of 3cm to 7cm across both amber warning areas.

And the dire forecast follows some freezing conditions already recorded in parts of the country.

Temperatures plunged to -8.6C in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire overnight, a Met Office spokesman confirmed.

For comparison, the coldest temperature recorded in January 2024 was -14C, measured in Dalwhinnie in the Highlands.

Several yellow weather warnings are also in force across the UK over the coming days.

The Orkney and Shetland Islands face a snow warning from 10am until 8pm today, while northern mainland Scotland is under a yellow ice warning from 6pm Saturday until 10am on Sunday.

Northern Ireland has a yellow warning for snow and ice from 9pm today until 6pm on Sunday.

And alongside snow, parts of Wales and western England have still been slapped with a yellow weather warning – this time for rain – from 6am until 9pm on Sunday.