WEATHER warnings for rain and potential flooding have been issued across Cheshire West and Chester as Storm Christoph hits the UK.

The Met Office has put in place a yellow warning for rain for the area until midday on Thursday.

And an Environment Agency flood alert covering Ellesmere Port is currently in force with the possibility of flooding around the Rivacre Brook area.

There is also a flood alert in place for the River Weaver catchment which includes Frodsham.

Heavy rain has already been causing issues this morning with delays expected to local Merseyrail services due to flooding on the line in the Hooton area.

The flood alert in place for the Wirral catchment with Heswall, Ellesmere Port, Bebington, Hoylake and Wallasey states: "We believe there is a possibility of flooding for low lying land and roads around the Rivers Fender and Birket, Rivacre, Dibbinsdale and Arrowe Brooks and their tributaries.

"Further rainfall is forecast over the next 48 hours. We expect river levels to remain high over the next couple of days and due to peak in the early hours of Wednesday, January 20.

"Our incident response staff are closely monitoring weather forecasts and river levels and will issue flood warnings if necessary. Please avoid using low lying footpaths near local watercourses, be aware of your surroundings, and keep up to date with the current situation."

Chief meteorologist Dan Suri said: “Following a cold spell where the main hazard was snow, our focus now turns to notably heavy rain moving across the UK this week.

"Some locations could see over 100mm of rain falling through the course just a couple of days with up to 200mm possible over higher ground.

"These amounts of rainfall along with snow melt present a real threat of flooding and people should keep a close eye on flood warnings from the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales.

“As the system moves away into the North Sea Wednesday night and Thursday morning there will be strong winds along the east coast for a time.

"Meanwhile, colder air coming southwards into the weather system brings the risk of further snow on the back edge of this system. Temperatures will gradually fall across the UK through the end of the week and into the weekend bringing a return to widespread overnight frosts.”