Heavy rain, gales and snow could hit parts of the UK in what forecasters have said will be a “very unsettled” spell of weather this week.
The Met Office has issued an amber weather warning for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for central northern England, affecting an area around Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.
Up to 70mm could fall in that area but in isolated spots, particularly in the Peak District, 120mm could be possible.
It warns of “danger to life” due to fast-flowing or deep floodwater and a “good chance some communities cut off by flooded roads”.
A yellow rain alert is also in place for most of northern England and Wales from Tuesday to Wednesday, before most of the UK falls into the warning on Thursday.
Melted snow as well as the rain have led to the Environment Agency issuing 11 local flood warnings, all of them in eastern England and mainly in North Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
The cause of the heavy rain is a weather front of low pressure over the North Sea which could cause gales along the east of the UK going into Thursday.
Colder air over the North of the UK could bring snowfalls to Scotland and north-east England later in the week, where the cold butts against the weather front.
But there will be calmer conditions heading into the weekend, forecasters said.
Met Office spokesperson Nicola Maxey said: “It’s a very unsettled period as we go through the week until Friday where we see colder air from the North pushing away the low pressure, so we expect a fine cold day on Friday.”
