Major incident declared in Greater Manchester over widespread flooding – live updates | UK weather

Wigan Athletic’s game against Huddersfield Town has been postponed due to flooding, the club had just announced.

Latics told fans that heavy rainfall on New Year’s Eve had made roads in the area dangerous to drive.

“Safety concerns regarding the public areas surrounding the ground and the strain on local emergency services dealing with a number of major incidents, which have been affected by severe flooding, led to the league fixture being called off,” the League One side said.

“Access to the area is severely restricted with many access routes closed due to flooding, and the emergency services are unable to provide resources to support the matchday operation.

“The news is naturally disappointing as Shaun Maloney and his players were looking forward to the highly-anticipated New Year’s Day fixture, but the safety of both sets of supporters is of paramount importance.”

The club added that a new date for the match would be announced in “due course.” All tickets for today’s postponed match will remain valid.

Meanwhile, Rochdale v Altrincham has been postponed in the National League, and Chorley v Buxton in National League North.

Police say they are supporting clean-up operations which taking place following floods across Greater Manchester in Bolton, Didsbury, Harpurhey, Stalybridge, Stockport and Wigan – along with the Environment Agency, National Highways and the fire service.

Emergency services are receiving reports of “damage, risk to life and stranded vehicles”.

Chief Superintendent Colette Rose with the Greater Manchester Police said:

Following events overnight a major incident has been declared.

This is to ensure we can continue to keep people safe through a co-ordinated effort from our collective emergency services, supported by key partner agencies.

Anyone affected should check the relevant detail being shared by their local council, the fire service and Transport for Greater Manchester to ensure they can get the support available, which include any road closures and information centres for those displaced.

It is advised to travel if it is only necessary and to take care if out and about.

Our officers with the fire service are in the key locations and can be spoken to if you need anything urgently, as we understand the distress those affected will be faced with as we begin 2025.

It will be a continued team effort as we monitor how the weather and water levels progress throughout today.”

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for snow due to hit Wales this weekend

The weather agency forecasts:

Outbreaks of rain spreading northeastwards later on Saturday and overnight into Sunday will likely be preceded by a spell of snow on its northern flank. Whilst there is a fair bit of uncertainty as to how far north this may spread, and how long any snow will last, significant accumulations of snow are possible, especially (but not exclusively) on hills.

Currently parts of the Midlands, Wales, and northern England are most at risk of disruption, where 5cm or more could accumulate fairly widely with perhaps as much as 20-30 cm over high ground of Wales and/or the Pennines. This, accompanied by strengthening winds, may lead to drifting of lying snow.

In addition, as milder air attempts to move northwards into southern and central areas, snow may turn to a spell of freezing rain for a time, adding to the risk of ice. If milder air is able to spread more bodily northwards any snow in southern parts of the warning area may be relatively short-lived before turning to rain. Given the uncertainties it is quite likely this warning area and start/end times will be refined over the coming days as confidence increases in areas most likely to be impacted.

Met Office issues three-day snow warning for almost all of England and parts of Scotland this weekend.

A yellow warning is in place from 12pm on Saturday until 9am on Monday and covers all regions of England other than the south west. Wales will be affected as will parts of southern Scotland.

The Met Office has warned that rural communities could become cut off. There is also a small chance of power cuts and disruption to mobile phone coverage, as well as delays and cancellations to flights, trains and other transport.

Nine million homes will face higher energy bills from Wednesday as Britain braces for freezing temperatures and snow warnings for the new year period.

The average energy bill for households across England, Scotland and Wales will rise by 1.2% from New Year’s Day to £1,738 a year for a typical household after the energy regulator raised its cap on gas and electricity charges.

The rising price cap is expected to pile pressure on household finances during the coldest months of the year when millions of homes have already racked up record levels of debt to their energy suppliers…

Up to 10cm of snowfall is possible in hilly regions around the UK. 3cm likely at low levels as the snow moves south on Wednesday morning. It will snow throughout the afternoon, overnight and into Thursday morning, the Met Office said.

Central and southern Scotland will see below freezing temperatures by late afternoon, reaching as low as -5C overnight. “Overnight temperatures will widely fall below freezing, perhaps reaching minus double digits in areas of Scotland already covered in snow,” it warned.

This could lead to icy roads and pavements leading to further travel disruption and risk of injuries “from slips and falls on icy surfaces”.

Meanwhile, the rain across northern England and Wales is showing no sign of going away.

The forecaster says: “Wintry showers are expected to affect the far north and east at times, but away from these, sunshine will be much more widespread than in recent days.