UK weather: More rain on the way as snow set to fall on New Year's Eve in northern England

Parts of northern England and Scotland are set to see snowfall as well as severe gales and rain on the last day of 2015. More showers are expected to drench the north in the coming days as well as snow on higher ground in northern in England and the Highlands, where temperatures are set to plummet to below -3C.

December 2015 has seen sustained unseasonably high temperatures reaching up to 15C in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall on Christmas Day. But the warm weather has caused chaos in the north of England where the warmer climate has brought torrential rainfall.

Parts of Manchester, Leeds, and Rochdale remain underwater after Storm Eva let rip on the British Isles with some regions getting over 40mm of rain in 24 hours – tripling the monthly rainfall expected. Over 100 troops have been dispatched to the North West as floods forced 700 homes in West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and North Wales to be evacuated. The streets turned into rivers whilst David Cameron hosted a Cobra meeting to develop a crisis plan.

The Met Office says that more wet and windy weather will continue for the next week with light showers expected Monday and Tuesday with more sustained rainfall expected on Wednesday and Thursday – and wind speeds set to top 27mph. The rainy conditions will continue into the start of January for the North West while the wet weather dries up in the south and east.

The Met Office predicts that snow could fall over higher ground in the north of England on Thursday 31 December – whilst the east of England will remain relatively dry. The Environment Agency (EA) has issued 31 severe flood warnings this week, which indicate a risk to life, whilst more than 500 flood warnings and alerts have been issued across England and Wales.

Met Office forecaster Craig Snell said to the Express: "A low pressure system moving in on Boxing Day will affect most of the UK with heavy rain forecast over Scotland and the north. Although Sunday will be a bit calmer there is another system moving in from the Atlantic on Monday with unsettled weather expected into the New Year."