Storm Goretti live: 30cm of snow and 90mph winds set to hit UK as amber weather warnings issued

Travel correspondent Simon Calder reports:

Rail passengers are waking up on Thursday morning to a barrage of warnings – including line closures taking place during the afternoon.

Northern says the line between Sheffield and Manchester, as well as routes to Glossop and Buxton, will be closed from 6pm today until Saturday morning.

Tricia Williams, managing director at Northern, said: “We have issued ‘Do Not Travel’ warnings on these three routes and are advising customers to check before they travel on other routes across our network and allow extra time for their journeys.

”The final train from Manchester Piccadilly to Sheffield leaves at 4.48pm, and in the opposite direction at 5.14pm.

Transport for Wales says six lines will be closed completely from 3pm today, with a reduced service on the remainder. The standard advice from TfW is: “You cannot travel – there are no trains running and we are unable to run rail replacement bus services.”

In Scotland, the northern parts of the Far North line from Inverness to Wick and Thurso remain closed, with some rail replacement buses.

Intercity operators are encouraging passengers to travel earlier in the day.Avanti West Coast is to reduce its timetable from 3pm. Instead of three trains an hour between both Birmingham and Manchester to London Euston, there will be two services – and only one an hour between Liverpool and London.

CrossCountry is cutting back trains from 3pm, and is offering passengers with tickets for Thursday or Friday to travel on any train they like today, or switch to Saturday.

LNER is also urging people with trains scheduled after 3pm on Thursday to travel earlier in the day if they can.

Chiltern urges passengers to complete their journeys by 8pm on Thursday and warns of reduced services on Friday.

South Western Railway has cancelled seven long-distance trains on Thursday evening and warns further disruption is likely.

Yellow snow and ice warning in Scotland: Started on 10pm Wednesday and will continue til midday today as ice is expected to develop overnight. Snow showers will fall to low levels at first away from coasts before becoming confined to ground above around 300 metres. Around 2-5cm of fresh snow accumulations are expected in western Scotland and hills northern England.

Yellow ice warning in Northern Ireland: Started at midnight and will continue til 10am today as an ice risk develops overnight, especially on untreated surfaces. A few showers will also persist across counties Antrim, Derry, Tyrone and Fermanagh, adding to the ice risk in these areas with rain falling on frozen ground.

Storms for each year are named as part of a collaborative effort between the Met Office and their partners in Ireland and the Netherlands.

More than 50,000 suggestions were submitted for this storm season, which includes entries from members of the public that have been submitted to Met Éireann and KNMI.

However, Storm Goretti was named by Meteo France, given that the brunt of the bad weather is expected to be felt in France.

While the word has no particular significance in the French language, its origin stems from an Italian virgin saint of particular importance to the Catholic church.

While it may be tempting to turn the dial to warm your home more quickly, thermostats only control the final temperature the room reaches – not the speed of heating – so turning it up does not warm rooms faster and is unlikely to make any difference beyond causing your energy bills to soar.

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Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said Storm Goretti will bring “wet, windy and wintry weather” to parts of the UK.

He said the storm would bring “some strong winds and some significant snow to central and perhaps southern parts”.

The meteorologist added: “As that rain pushes its way and it hits against that cold air that we currently have across us… and so on the northern edge, we are likely to see some fairly significant snow as we go through later tomorrow and into Friday.”

Arctic air has plunged much of the country into sub-zero temperatures following the turn of the year, with temperatures falling to as low as -12.5 in Norfolk, while many northern regions have been blanketed in heavy snow.

The treacherous conditions, which have caused major disruption to transport services, have triggered amber cold health alerts and a warning from health secretary Wes Streeting that hospitals were coming under intense pressure.

The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder reports:

Nearly 700 more flights have been cancelled on Wednesday at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, where snow, ice and high winds have wrecked schedules – especially for the Dutch airline KLM – for the past six days. On Wednesday, more than 100 links with the UK have been grounded.

Daniel Gustafsson of the flight-tracking website Flightradar24 says: “While Schiphol certainly can operate during winter weather, the airport’s de-icing infrastructure obviously isn’t designed to handle a barrage of snow for multiple days in a row.”

He warns of a “critical shortage” of de-icing fluid “that threatens to halt operations entirely”.

Mr Gustafsson writes: “Even a thin layer of ice on a wing can significantly affect lift which is why all critical surfaces of an aircraft must be completely free of snow and ice before takeoff. KLM operates a fleet of 25 de-icing trucks at Schiphol and is responsible for de-icing not only its own fleet but most aircraft at the airport. KLM’s de-icing teams have been using approximately 85,000 liters of fluid per day since Friday. This is extraordinary, leading to supplies depleting faster than they have been replenished.”

There is also a strictly finite time between when the aircraft is sprayed and take-off. “This window is referred to as holdover time,” he writes. “If an aircraft can’t depart within this crucial time window it must return for re-treatment.”

He adds that the potential “network domino effect” of a snarl-up at Amsterdam has led some airlines to cancel flights rather than risking an aircraft being stuck at Schiphol.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has extended amber cold health alerts for England as an early warning that adverse temperatures are likely to affect health and wellbeing, running until Sunday.

Dr Agostinho Sousa, head of extreme events and health protection at UKHSA, said: “As the colder weather sets in, it is vital to check in on friends, family and neighbours that are most vulnerable.

“The forecast temperatures can have a serious impact on the health of some people, leading to increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and chest infections, particularly for individuals over the age of 65 and those with pre-existing health conditions.”