Snow began to cause chaos across the North East on Thursday with more freezing weather expected.
People across the region woke up to a blanket of snow outside of their homes on Thursday morning. The weather conditions caused train failures and delays on the Tyne and Wear Metro.
During the afternoon, a major road was closed due to snowfall. National Highways shut the A66, between Scotch Corner and Brough, from 2pm for safety reasons.
Read more: North East snow LIVE: Updates as forecasters issue amber weather warning with 'blizzards' expected
The Met Office has issued a rare amber warning for snow and ice. It covers some northern parts of the country, including County Durham, and will be in place until 12pm on Friday.
A yellow warning for snow also covers the rest of the North East. It is set to last until 2pm on Friday.
Forecasters have warned of significant disruption including stranded vehicles and power cuts. Northern Powergrid said they are ready to respond to power cuts caused by the weather.
It said: "This weather front does have the potential to have an impact and cause damage to our network, so there is a possibility that there could be disruption to power supplies in at least some parts of the region.
"The relevant teams are on standby and ready to be diverted onto the storm response should this materialise. We also have a large fleet of generators ready to be deployed where they are the most effective way of restoring supplies."
National Highways is asking everyone travelling in Cumbria, Durham and North Yorkshire to consider if their journey is essential and to go prepared.
Network Rail is working with the Met Desk to monitor forecasts and they have extra staff on call, ready to respond to any incidents.
It said: "We are currently planning to start the Friday morning service as normal, but are anticipating having to run slightly fewer trains on routes which are particularly badly affected. Our advice to passengers is very much to check on the status of your journey before setting off – particularly in the early morning."
Network Rail will be send 'route proving trains', sometimes known as 'ghost trains', across their network tonight. They will gather intelligence on the levels of snow and determine whether routes are safe to operate for the start of service.
Matt Rice, route director for Network Rail’s North and East Route, said: "The railway is maintained throughout the year to cope with extreme temperatures and conditions – both hot and cold - but short bursts of particularly heavy snow and ice do occasionally cause some short-term disruption, so please check your journey is possible before you travel and take extra care around stations and level crossings."
The Met Office has issued a further yellow weather warning for snow and ice in the North East this weekend. The warning is in place between 3pm on Saturday and 6am on Sunday.
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