Fog warning issued across the UK as travel faces disruption

The Met Office, the UK's weather service, has warned that weather conditions are creating dense fog across the country, and that travel may be disrupted as a result.

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning lasting from 6pm on Sunday until 11am on Monday. The affected areas include most of southern England, excluding the south-west, and the whole of the Midlands.

Parts of northern England and Wales are also covered by the warning. Fog is expected in Liverpool, Sheffield, York, Cardiff and Wrexham.

Niamh Murray, a Met Office operational meteorologist, said there would still be patchy fog elsewhere, though not as dense or as impactful. Fog could appear across much of the UK, including parts of the West Country, Northern Ireland and the central belt of Scotland.

She explained that in autumn and winter the nights are much longer, temperatures fall away, and the air becomes saturated and forms fog. In her words, recent conditions have created the perfect recipe for dense fog.

She said light winds are also needed for fog to form. At the moment, light winds, clear skies and long nights have combined to create the right conditions, and if temperatures fall further, the fog may be slow to clear the next day.

The Met Office said the fog may be densest overnight on Monday in rural areas such as parts of the Midlands, Wales and East Anglia, with air frost possible.

The warning says visibility may fall to 50 metres or less in parts of the UK. That could delay bus and train services, and flights in and out of the country could also be delayed or cancelled because of the heaviness of the fog.

Murray added that rainfall following the fog could benefit the south-west of the UK, where drought has persisted for months and the Environment Agency has declared severe drought. She said slow-moving rain could bring accumulations of 50 to 70mm there.