Norwich set for a white Christmas

Norwich is in for a white Christmas this year as forecasters predict overnight snow.

Flurries are expected tonight and going into Christmas Day and there is also a chance of snow as early as this afternoon.

But Phil Garner, forecaster at UEA-based Weatherquest, said that heavy snowfall was unlikely.

'For Christmas Eve it's just a case of an isolated flurry,' he said.

'It would just be very light, little more than a flurry.'

He added that overnight snowfall would be enough to give the city a 'light dusting' by the morning.

The weather and high demand from passengers travelling home for Christmas is also putting strain on transport around the region.

National Express East Anglia said this morning that it was running an amended timetable to 'mitigate the impact of the very low air temperature'.

'Icicles are forming under bridges and making contact with the overhead power lines causing them to trip out, and compacted snow is building up in the doors and under carriages of our trains causing some equipment to freeze up,' said a statement on their website.

The company has put on patrols of staff to remove the icicles as they form and has placed engineers at stations to fix any defective trains.

It is hoped that train services between Norwich and London Liverpool Street will run as normal, as will services to Felixstowe, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Sheringham and Peterborough.

But services will stop earlier than usual, with the last train to London Liverpool Street from Norwich departing at 7.30pm.

First Capital Connect was also running a revised timetable between King's Lynn and London Kings Cross.

The company said that staff were working 'around the clock to prevent and clear the build up of snow and ice on our trains'.