Wales braces for New Year’s Eve weather warnings

Revellers in Wales are braced for disrupted New Year celebrations with weather warnings issued for heavy rain and high winds across large parts of the country.

The Met Office have issued a yellow weather warning for rain for most of Wales from 6pm on New Year’s Eve until 6pm on New Year’s Day.

Spray and flooding on roads will probably make journey times longer and flooding of a few homes and businesses is likely.

Power cuts

A separate yellow weather warning for very strong winds has also been issued for the whole of Wales on Wednesday (Jan 1) from 00:15am until 15:00pm with gusts of up to 75mph expected.

The Met Office has warned there is a chance of longer journey times or cancellations and some damage to buildings, such as tiles blown from roofs.

There is a slight chance that power cuts may occur, with the potential to affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage.

Almost every part of the UK is covered by at least one of the multiple weather warnings for snow, wind and rain during the new year transition period.

Turbulent

Scotland has been hit first by the turbulent weather, with “pulses of rain” and snow on Monday.

Northern England will also be battered by blustery conditions, including gusts of up to 60mph, according to the forecaster.

Up to 20cm of snow may blanket areas of higher ground while strong winds have the potential to “exacerbate impacts”, creating “blizzard conditions” which could freeze powerlines.

Senior Met Office forecaster Craig Snell said: “Moving into New Year’s Eve, another system moves in from the Atlantic, again, Scotland bearing the brunt of this one with some further heavy rain and snow and strong winds.

“To the south, we will see some rain later on New Year’s Eve, but it shouldn’t cause too many problems, apart from if you’re out celebrating – you might get a bit damp.”

He added: “The main bit of advice from the Met Office over the coming days is, with the celebrations and people on the move throughout the new year and Hogmanay period, is the keep checking the forecast and to stay up to date with that.”

Those with travel plans should allow extra time for journeys and keep updated with flood alerts and warnings, Mr Snell said.

“With the multiple hazards going on across the UK, I think we can probably expect some travel delays right across the UK,” he added.