Heavy snowfall closes roads and airport runways with amber warnings in effect

Heavy snowfall overnight closed runways at several UK airports with amber weather warnings in place for large parts of the country.

Manchester, Liverpool John Lennon and Leeds Bradford airports closed runways this morning as workers tried to clear heavy overnight snowfall.

Birmingham Airport suspended operations for several hours overnight ‘for snow clearing and safety reasons’, but said it was on schedule for ‘business as usual’ this morning.

Several planes bound for Bristol Airport were diverted to other airports last night while it closed temporarily, but reopened around 11pm.

The runways at Manchester have now reopened and Liverpool is set to reopen its at 10.15am but Leeds Bradford’s remain closed.

The Met Office said as much as 12cm of snow fell in some areas overnight. The coldest temperature recorded was -11C at Loch Glascarnoch in Scotland.

Two amber weather warnings for snow and ice are in place, coveringmuch of central and northern England as well as Wales.

One, over northern England is set to end at midnight tonight, while the other over central England and Wales is due to finish at noon today.

There are yellow weather warnings for most of the rest of the country.

The UK Health Agency issued a Cold Health Alert and warned of an ‘increased risk to health’.

Meanwhile, there have been a ‘number of collisions’ on the M5 motorway between Weston-super-Mare and Taunton in nearby Somerset, with roads closed as a result.