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2010-12-01 10:01:56
Large parts of the UK have been brought to a standstill by the early freeze
Further snow and freezing temperatures are causing major problems for road,
rail and air services in much of the UK, and thousands of schools are shut.
There are icy road warnings, and up to 15cm of snow could fall in some areas.
Many roads are gridlocked, some trains and buses have been cancelled, and
Gatwick and Edinburgh airports will be closed until at least Thursday morning.
The Met Office has issued heavy snow warnings for much of the eastern side of
Britain and some central areas.
Avalanche warning
In England, heavy snow warnings are in place for Yorkshire and Humber, the East
Midlands and north-east England.
In Scotland the warnings apply to Grampian, Central, Tayside and Fife,
Strathclyde, south-west Scotland, Lothian and Borders.
Thousands of Scottish children will have a third consecutive day off as many
councils keep schools closed.
Hundreds of skiers took to the slopes near Aviemore in the Cairngorms on
Tuesday, and an avalanche warning has now been issued.
WEATHER AND TRAVEL INFO
are available at BBC Travel News
website
Health website
Supt Chris Moon of Surrey Police said the county's conditions were the worst he
had ever seen and were likely to get worse. He said people should not travel
unless they had to, adding: "I have put out several severe weather warnings in
my career, but this one I really must stress."
Police have issued the same advice in Kent and in South Yorkshire. In Kent some
roads in the west and north of the county are impassable due to snow and ice.
Hospitals in South Yorkshire are asking patients not to attend unless it is
urgent, and they have asked off-duty medical staff to make their way into work
if possible.
Thousands of rail commuters face severe disruption to their journeys in
Scotland and northern England - particularly in the Sheffield area. London and
the south-east has also suffered, including delays and cancellations to
Southeastern services operating out of London Victoria and Charing Cross.
There are delays on the East Coast Main Line, with an hourly service between
London and Edinburgh, and reduced services between London and Leeds and London
and Newcastle.
Passengers face delays of up to an hour on Eurostar services.
BBC weatherman Liam Dutton said up to 10cm of snow could fall in East Anglia
and south-east England, with up to 15cm possible in north-east England and
south-east Scotland.
"Temperatures will be barely above freezing across the UK and when you add in
the effect of the wind chill, it will feel much, much, colder than that," he
said.
Overnight, temperatures hit a low of -20C in Altnaharra in the Highlands.
However, south-west England, Wales, western Scotland and Northern Ireland
should enjoy sunny spells.
Airports closed
On Tuesday across the UK, many commuters worked from home, thousands of
children could not go to school and motorists faced travel chaos as a number of
roads were impassable. The disruption on Wednesday includes:
closed until 0600 GMT tomorrow. Edinburgh Airport is also closed until at least
Thursday morning. Guernsey Airport, Robin Hood Airport in Doncaster and Durham
Tees Valley Airport are also shut, while other airports are disrupted.
Newcastle Airport has reopened. Passengers are advised to check with their
airline.
schools in Essex, 100 in Surrey, 195 across Tyneside, Wearside, County Durham
and Northumberland, and 280 schools and colleges in East Yorkshire, Hull and
northern Lincolnshire
direction and the Forth Road Bridge has been closed in both directions
A13 (Lakeside) - and J29 - A127 (Romford) - because of a jack-knifed lorry
of the Dartford tunnels
flyover
snow.
and the Hartsop junction, because of snow. One lane remains closed on the A66
between A6108 and A685 junctions. The A686 Hartside Pass Langwathby is also
closed
out of London Victoria and Charing Cross. No Southeastern trains are running
between Victoria and Dartford, Charing Cross and Hastings and between Strood
and Paddock Wood.
the station after all connecting road and rail services cancelled.
London to Kent were stuck for around five hours overnight, stranding about 60
passengers, who have now been taken off the trains. Train services are still
severely affected.
On Tuesday evening Max Cross, from Portsmouth, said he took seven hours - five
of them on the M25 - to complete a journey which usually takes 90 minutes to
Gatwick Airport.
Drivers were also stuck on the A2 near the M25 in Kent. Truck driver Nigel
Waller, who was on his way to Bradford, told the BBC at 0100 GMT that traffic
was slowly starting to move.
"I'm doing 15 miles an hour which is the fastest I have driven in hours. I have
been stuck since 1730," he said.
"I haven't seen any gritters and it's getting slippery because it's freezing
and there's slush. I saw a truck trying to overtake a broken down car - he went
straight through the central reservation."
Motoring organisation the AA said it had received an average of 1,350 calls an
hour on Tuesday. The RAC said call-outs to breakdowns peaked at 2,000 an hour.
Halfords said an additional 16,600 sledges were being shipped in to meet
increased demands.