Wales, Northern Ireland and England’s east coast will see icy conditions this week, with cold weather expected to linger through to the weekend, forecasters have said.
The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for these regions which also includes northern Scotland and the Western Isles, where temperatures could sink as low as minus 10C (14F).
Forecasters said the warning will remain in place until Thursday lunchtime but the cold weather will not begin to shift until early next week.
Met Office spokesperson Oli Claydon said: “Day to day we are in cold conditions already with that north-easterly flow, but conditions are set to get colder through the week, with the worst showers across northern Scotland but also bringing much colder conditions across all the UK.
“Overnight lows of minus 10 to minus 11 (12.2F) in areas where we do get snow in those rural parts of Scotland, with temperatures down to minus six (21.2F) in rural England.
“Cold conditions to remain through the weekend. Signs of warmer weather moving in from the southwest from Tuesday next week. But the signs are that the cold weather will hold in the north of the UK, so there will be a split between north and south.”
The UK Health and Security Agency also issued a cold weather alert from Wednesday evening and recommended people warm their homes to at least 18C (64.4F).
Age UK has advised maintaining a supply of food and medicine to reduce the number of outdoor trips and torches with spare batteries in case of a power cut.
However, some areas of Sheffield have been left without gas since Friday night when water flooded into the pipes and poured through gas meters and kitchen hobs.
Gas supplier Cadent, which is working to clear the flood, said up to 2,000 properties have been affected and it may take a few more days to return everyone’s supply.
A spokesperson said: “We have pumped out about 400,000 litres of water from our gas network and we are still pumping water out, 200,000 litres of water a day now.”
“We believe about 1,500-2,000 properties are affected. We will be getting more people back on gas today, we are hoping we can get a good 500 back on.
“West Stannington and parts of Hillsborough have still got a lot of water in the gas network, it will be another day before we get them back on because there is so much water.
“For some people it may be a couple more days before we can get the gas on because we still need to clear water.
“We are trying to be realistic with people but we are getting people back on gas. Our priority is still the most vulnerable customers to make sure they are warmed and fed.
“People are pumping out water, we have got big tankers and small tankers, engineers are knocking on people’s doors because they are still reporting, we have been visiting some of the most vulnerable customers as well and dealing with customers’ enquiries.
“We have a combination of people off gas, people with poor gas pressure and people on gas. We are managing all of this at the moment and trying to ensure that people do not overuse their electricity.”
