Will there be 20cm of snow in Manchester this week like 2010?

Manchester is  blessed with a relatively mild climate which avoids extreme weather conditions. There are two types of weather we are accustomed to in winter. Cold and wet and a bit colder and dry.

Snow seems to be getting rarer and rarer. We love it when it snows at Christmas but hate it any other time of the year. Last Christmas was unseasonably mild.

The video shows chaos in 2010 – the coldest winter since 1978-79. Drivers caught out by the 15-20cm depth of snow making many main roads in and out of Manchester impassable. Public transport was suspended and emergency services restricted to ‘major incident’ status. The region just broke down.

The Met Office has issued a yellow snow warning for Manchester this week. This isn’t a warning not to eat yellow snow – something which should always be avoided – but a warning that snow showers are expected to develop from Wednesday evening into Thursday and that, combined with strong winds, they could lead to very poor travel conditions.

So will it snow in Manchester this week? We have no idea, but there’s one thing we can be certain of.

If it does snow, expect chaos on the roads, school closures and widespread disruption to just about everything else.