UK weather map: Travel TODAY to avoid New Year chaos as Met Office issues urgent warning for snow an

FAMILIES and revellers have been urged to travel TODAY to avoid New Year chaos as the Met Office issued a warning for snow and high winds.

Gusts of up to 75mph could hit parts of the south of England and Wales on Saturday, the Met Office has said.

A yellow weather warning for wind covering parts of Wales and the east of England has been issued and will come into force between 11am on Saturday and 3am on Sunday.

A spell of strong and gusty winds will move east across England and Wales, bringing some disruption to travel and services, the forecaster said.

There may also be flooding and transport disruption in Wales as a yellow warning for rain is in place between 10am and 6pm on Saturday.

The same weather warning will also come into effect at 4am on Saturday for Northern Ireland, due to be in force until 11am the same day.

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London North Eastern Railway (LNER), whose services are controlled by the Department for Transport, cancelled at least six long-distance trains on Friday due to a lack of available staff.

The same reason meant several other services were severely delayed or only ran part of the planned route.

A shortage of train crew at Edinburgh meant CrossCountry cancelled a number of trains to and from the station.

Avanti West Coast axed several of it services to and from London Euston due to a staff shortage.

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Northern, which is also controlled by the Government, said it will run no services on six lines on Sunday - New Year's Eve - due to "train crew unavailability".

The affected routes with a "Do Not Travel" alert connect Manchester Victoria with Chester and Stalybridge, Manchester Piccadilly with Chester via Altrincham, and Preston with Colne.

There will also be no trains between Morecambe and Lancaster, or Clitheroe and Bolton.

Services on other lines will finish earlier than usual at around 4pm.

Some Northern staff only work on Sundays as voluntary paid overtime, creating the risk of not having enough available employees to run the full timetable.

London Northwestern Railway warned passengers it is "anticipating crowding and disruption to services on New Year's Eve".

It said this is due to the "combined impact of recent storms damage across the network, higher than usual rates of sickness absence within our teams as well as reduced capacity within our Sunday timetable".

The operator has cancelled all services between Stafford and Crewe, and warned that trains on other routes such as between London Euston and Northampton are "subject to alteration and possible cancellation".

Chiltern Railways, which runs between London Marylebone and the West Midlands, said "a shortage of train crew" means there is "a high risk of short notice cancellations and disruption on the day across all routes" on Saturday and Sunday.

LNER also suffered disruption on Friday due to "severe weather", with strong winds affecting parts of the East Coast Main Line.

This meant a service due to run from Aberdeen to London King's Cross started from Newcastle.

A fault with the signalling system between Newcastle and Berwick-upon-Tweed means some southbound lines are blocked.

This is affecting LNER, CrossCountry, Lumo and TransPennine Express services.

It comes after a supercell thunderstorm moved across northwest England yesterday after the same type of storm resulted in a tornado that damaged homes in Greater Manchester.

Train services impacted by Storm Gerrit

The severe weather due to Storm Gerrit means that trains may still be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised.

ScotRail

Aberdeen and Glasgow Queen Street / Edinburgh

Glasgow Central and Oban / Mallaig

Glasgow Central and Carlisle via Dumfries

Inverness and Glasgow Queen Street / Edinburgh

Transport for Wales

Llandudno / Llandudno Junction - Blaenau Ffestiniog

Swansea and Shrewsbury

Northern

Do Not Travel on the routes below on New Year's Eve (31 December)

The thunderstorm moved east across Morecambe Bay bringing hail, frequent lightning and gusty winds to parts of Lancashire, according to the Met Office.

The forecasting body said a supercell thunderstorm crossed Greater Manchester on Wednesday night and that it had a "strong rotating updraft", which suggests "a tornado at the surface was likely".

Around 100 properties were damaged by a "localised tornado" in Stalybridge, Tameside.

Meanwhile residents in the badly hit village of Carrbrook told of the states of "absolute disaster" houses were in.

The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation has confirmed the incident was a tornado and given it a provisional maximum damage rating of T5.

The Liberal Democrats called on the PM to convene a Cobra meeting after the damage wreaked in the Greater Manchester town.

Storm Gerrit also caused power outages as around 1,500 homes in Scotland experienced a second night without power while a lightning strike hit supplies in Wales yesterday.

Power company Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said it had restored supply to more than 46,000 properties, with people in the north east and Shetland worst affected.

They said the remaining homes should be reconnected on Friday with welfare vans serving hot food and drink to affected customers from 9am.

Operations director Andy Smith said: "This has been a difficult couple of days for the communities affected and I'm grateful to them for their patience and support as our teams work extremely hard to restore power."

National Grid UK said 36,000 properties were without power in Ceredigion on Thursday after lightning struck.

Three men died after their 4x4 vehicle was submerged in the River Esk, near Glaisdale, on Thursday, North Yorkshire Police said.

Hayley McCaffer, 40, who lives in Carrbrook, said that some of her neighbours' houses "are an absolute disaster" with missing roofs and "squished" cars.

Damage will be covered by standard property insurance policies, the Association of British Insurers has said.

The Met Office reported the worst of Storm Gerrit had passed with the last few days of 2023 forecast to be unsettled with strong winds, rain and even snow on higher ground.

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Met Office chief forecaster Steven Ramsdale said: "Heavy rain will spread across all but the far north on Saturday, affecting similar areas previously affected by Storm Gerrit.

"However, this rainfall will be a step down from that seen during Storm Gerrit."

What is a T5 rating?

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