Heavy snow leaves roads treacherous
Heavy overnight snow has brought severe disruption to road, rail and air travel with motorists being urged to take extra care in treacherous conditions.
Many motorway drivers were forced to spend the night in their cars as the snow brought traffic to a standstill on the M25, while Heathrow Airport cancelled a third of its flights.
The big freeze brought snowfalls of up to 16cm, with forecasters warning it would linger on the ground in some areas and temperatures would remain low this week.
It also wreaked havoc with sporting fixtures, with Derby County's Championship match against arch-rivals Nottingham Forest postponed because roads and pavements around Derby's football stadium were dangerous.
Snow fell over Scotland, northern England and the Midlands on Saturday before moving down to London and East Anglia.
Paul Mott, senior forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said at 10am on Sunday: "It's stopped snowing now. Through the rest of the day, temperatures are going to recover in western areas, maybe reaching as high as 7C (45F), but in the south east it will stay cold, reaching 1C (34F) at best.
"Snow that is lying, particularly around Lincolnshire, East Anglia and Kent, will stay there throughout the day. In London temperatures may reach 2C (36F), and we expect a partial thaw. It will be a largely dry day and this evening there may be fog, after a cold day, with wet surfaces of snow on the ground. There are likely to be some fairly dense patches of fog, particularly in the Midlands and Lincolnshire.
"It will be cold again tonight, though not as cold as it has been - temperatures are expected to fall to a degree or two below freezing in the east and south east. We expect the coming week to be mostly dry, and staying cold."
The flights at Heathrow Airport were axed because of the snow and the possibility of freezing fog. A full schedule of flights is planned for Gatwick Airport, but passengers were warned of possible disruptions because of the weather. Stansted, Birmingham and Luton airports were forced to suspend operations for a period last night as snow piled up on the runways, but operations resumed on Sunday with some delays.
On the roads, motorists faced what the RAC described as a "dangerous cocktail of driving conditions" and were urged to stay at home where possible. Some minor routes closed altogether.
(Evening Standard)
