West London weather: Disruption expected as heavy rain set to freeze over on roads and railways

Heavy showers will turn to ice as temperatures plummet overnight in the south east.

Commuters could face disruption as roads and railways are predicted to freeze over after a polar cold front sweeps across the country.

A yellow ice warning from the Met Office is in place for the south east on Friday morning (February 9), including to the west of London.

Drivers are at risk of finding frozen-over roads from 4am through to 11am despite gritting, as the country will be hit with heavy showers from Thursday (February 8) evening which will leave the roads wet and prone to icing.

Forecasters predict councils could struggle to treat roads, and difficult traffic conditions are predicted.

Met Office spokesman Nicola Maxey said: "Obviously the ground is wet, temperatures drop that increases the ice risk.

"It also makes it difficult for roads to be treated, obviously the councils can’t go out until the rain has passed and then the temperatures have already dropped, that makes gritting quite difficult.

"Certainly it is a situation where people should be careful on roads and icy pavements, particularly if they are up and about early.

"Some of the rain is certainly quite heavy as it comes through, it is heavier further north and by the time it reaches the south east it will break up a bit but there is still going to be quite a bit of it.

"Untreated surfaces are going to be a problem.

"Showers could be around as temperatures drop and on higher ground we could see some snow flurries."

A polar cold front looming behind the rain clouds is to blame for the icy conditions, the Met Office said.

"Overnight tonight we’ve got rain coming through to start the night," the forecaster added.

"Then, there are colder temperatures behind that front of rain.

"There is a colder air mass coming in and we are back into polar-maritime air, and temperatures drop quite quickly behind the rain."

Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.

You can set up your app to see all the latest news and events from your area, plus receive push notifications for breaking news.

Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android .