💾 Archived View for gmi.noulin.net › mobileNews › 2660.gmi captured on 2024-05-10 at 13:13:30. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Snow and ice causes disruption as cold spell continues

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

Get the latest on school closures and travel problems via your local website
Check if snow is forecast in your area at BBC Weather
Details of motorway and local road closures and public transport disruption are available at BBC Travel News
For advice on handling difficult driving conditions, see the Highways Agency website
For information about severe weather warnings, see the Met Office website
For information about staying healthy in the cold weather, see the NHS Winter 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:

Severe disruption for air passengers at Gatwick Airport where its runways are 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 many parts of Scotland are closed for a third day
More than 400 schools and nurseries are closed in South Yorkshire, about 330 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
The M8 motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh is down to one lane in each direction and the Forth Road Bridge has been closed in both directions
The M25 in Essex is blocked with heavy traffic anti-clockwise between J30 - A13 (Lakeside) - and J29 - A127 (Romford) - because of a jack-knifed lorry
The Dartford River Crossing is closed with traffic being diverted through one of the Dartford tunnels
Massive delays on the A2 at Cobham after a lorry jack-knifed under the M25 flyover
In North Yorkshire, the A169 is shut in the Whitby area because of drifting snow.
In Cumbria, the A592 Kirkstone Pass is closed between the Troutbeck junction 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
There are delays and cancellations to Southeastern services, which operate 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.
Passengers trying to travel from Newark to Lincoln faced a night sleeping on the station after all connecting road and rail services cancelled.
Rail firm Southeastern said at least three of its trains travelling from 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.