Leeds awakes to a blanket of snow amid warning of '˜nasty' travel conditions

An amber warning has been issued by the Met Office with 12 hours of snow fall now expected and ‘heavy snow’ for seven hours in the Leeds area.

The yellow warning for snow runs from 3am until 3pm on Friday and the amber warning runs from 4am until 11am.

Met Office forecaster Charles Powell said there could be some “pretty nasty travel conditions”.

“It is a band of severe weather. Weather warnings are in force. There is going to be disruption in some shape or form,” he said.

Highways England has issued a severe weather warning and urged people to plan their journeys, monitor weather reports and pack a snow kit of blankets, food, water and a shovel if they really need to travel.

The RAC said it expects to attend “in the region of one breakdown every 10 seconds through the course of Friday”.

The organisation’s traffic spokesman Rod Dennis said: “Some northern regions are set to see further snowfall in the early hours, making driving conditions very difficult if not impossible where the heaviest snowfall occurs.

“Drivers in the areas likely to be affected should consider delaying their journeys if they are not absolutely essential, as some disruption is likely.”