Chaos on the roads and scores of f lights cancelled as Big Chill bites
ALMOST every part of the country could be hit by snow today as a bitterly cold chill takes hold.
Having already swept across Kent, Essex and Suffolk, snow and ice are expected to grip much of the UK by this evening.
This week is set to be one of the coldest of winter with temperatures set to reach lows of -11C (12F) tonight.
Flurries of snow and ice hit the South East yesterday morning and on Sunday night.
British Airways cancelled 70 flights yesterday because of bad weather at Heathrow – with a further 16 cancelled today. Flights from Nice, Milan, Aberdeen and Manchester were affected, as well as those to Edinburgh and Dublin.
There was a string of motorway crashes in Kent, including one that caused a van to flip over when it hit a lorry. Police warned drivers to take extra care as snow settled across Kent and Essex, while flurries also hit Manchester, London and Northumberland.
Kent Police shared pictures of the havoc wreaked by the treacherous conditions, including an overturned car. One driver wrote on Twitter: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this! Absolute carnage with vehicles overturned, abandoned and facing the wrong way on the hard shoulder!’
Elsewhere, Southern Rail said there was disruption between Hastings and Eastbourne yesterday morning because ice was ‘preventing trains getting electricity’.
Today a band of snow and sleet will work its way southwards across much of the UK– with some areas seeing almost four inches of snowfall. There are yellow snow and ice warnings for much of the country.
Nicola Maxey, of the Met Office, said: ‘Anywhere in the country could – depending on the time of the day – be at risk of seeing some snow, whether that’s more persistent or just a flurry or a bit of sleet. It is going to be a cold day with temperatures certainly in the low single figures. Overnight into Wednesday is probably going to be the coldest night of the week and we could see temperatures – certainly on higher ground in Scotland – as low as -11C.
‘This week is certainly one of the coldest we have seen this winter so far and the cold weather is set to continue.’
Met Office forecaster Martin Bowles said the front working southwards would bring a ‘chance of some fairly substantial settling of snow’ in north Wales and the North West.