16-hour fog alert triggers travel warning in West Midlands
By Google News Category Travel Advice ·
Travellers across the West Midlands are being urged to prepare for disruption as a 16-hour yellow weather warning for dense fog brings reduced visibility and the risk of delays on key road, rail and air routes from Monday evening into Tuesday morning.
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The Met Office has placed much of central England, including the West Midlands, under a yellow warning for fog running from 6pm on Monday 9 November to 10am on Tuesday 10 November. Publicly available forecast information indicates that fog is expected to redevelop after dusk, becoming dense at times overnight with visibility in some areas falling below 100 metres.
The alert covers the wider West Midlands region, including Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands conurbation, which takes in Birmingham, Wolverhampton and surrounding towns. The warning also extends into parts of eastern Wales and central and eastern England, forming a broad corridor of poor visibility across the heart of the UK.
This latest warning follows similar alerts over the weekend, when fog patches formed readily on Saturday night and Sunday morning, lingering in places into the late morning. Forecast data shows that a persistent area of high pressure, light winds and clear skies has allowed repeated overnight fog formation, with only weak November sunshine available to disperse it during the day.
National forecast guidance published on Monday indicates that this is expected to be the last widespread night of dense fog before cloud, wind and outbreaks of rain move in from the southwest later in the week, gradually breaking up the stagnant conditions over central Britain.
The yellow warning advises that journey times are likely to be slower, particularly on major routes such as the M5, M6 and M42, together with A-road corridors that link the West Midlands conurbation with Shropshire, Herefordshire and Warwickshire. Public guidance linked to the warning notes an increased chance of disruption where visibility drops sharply and remains low for several hours.
Motoring organisations routinely recommend that drivers plan for longer travel times when dense fog is forecast, leave extra distance between vehicles and make sure fog lights are in working order before departure.
The risk is expected to be greatest late on Monday evening and through the early hours of Tuesday, when cold air and light winds make it easier for thick fog to form in low-lying areas, river valleys and stretches of open countryside.
Regional forecasts show that temperatures in the West Midlands are expected to fall close to freezing overnight, raising the possibility that damp road surfaces could become slippery in places.
While no separate ice warning has been issued for the region, travel advice associated with the fog alert highlights that any combination of limited visibility and cold road surfaces can make braking distances more unpredictable.
Commuters heading into Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and other large centres on Tuesday morning are being encouraged by transport operators and publicly available travel bulletins to check live conditions before setting out, with some local bus and coach services already signalling that journey times may be extended during the morning peak.
Alongside the impact on roads, the fog warning notes that there is a chance of delays to bus and train services and possible disruption to flights. In practice…
Originally published by Google News Category Travel Advice
