A severe weather alert has been issued ahead of what is forecast to be a week of disruptive cold weather.

National Highways has followed the UK Health Security Agency and the Met Office in warning the public about the impact of the weather set to hit Preston.

The UKHSA has a cold health alert in place until Thursday while the Met Office has snow weather warnings in place from Tuesday until Thursday.

Read more: Preston day-by-day weather forecast as cold snap intensifies

The warning from National Highways North West, which is a government agency charged with managing the region’s motorways and A-roads, runs from 3am until midnight on Tuesday (January 16).

It warns that the following routes are expected to be affected: A590, M6, M55, M58, M57, M60, M61, M65, Western part of the M62 & A66, A628 (Woodhead Pass).

A spokesperson for National Highways: “A small area of low pressure is going to bring widespread snow into the Northwest on Tuesday. While the behaviour (track and intensity) of this small scale feature is not yet fully resolved, it has the potential to bring travel disruption and will develop in two stages, complicating the forecast.

“Snow showers are going to feed into the Northwest region during the early hours of Tuesday, particularly along coastal areas where they will be more frequent.

“Whilst accumulations will vary due to their erratic nature, 1-3cm of snow is expected widely in western parts (from Carlisle down to Manchester), perhaps 3-5cm in places, whereas eastern parts will remain mostly dry initially.

“A south-westerly wind (30-40mph gusts) will then pick up later in the morning, allowing the showers to merge into a more organised band of precipitation. The snow will turn to rain at low levels and on coastal locations during the afternoon, initiating a thaw, whilst migrating towards high ground with 1-3cm widely above 200m by 16/2100 and up to 5-10cm on top of the A66 and the M62. The band of rain, sleet and snow will peter out during the evening whilst slowly sinking southwards.”

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