Now for the big freeze
WINTER RETURNS AS FROST AND SNOW GRIP COUNTRY Second cold blast brings chaos from north to south Commuters warned of ice risk as mercury falls
COMMUTERS face misery today after the Beast from the East returned to unleash up to a foot of snow in the last gasp of winter.
Roads, railways and airports were in chaos yesterday as another cold snap caused delays for thousands of people.
An amber “risk to life” weather warning for the South West was still in place until 3am today, with a yellow warning of ice for most of the country until 10am.
Partly melted snow was likely to refreeze in plunging overnight temperatures, and experts feared it could cause treacherous conditions today.
The Met Office’s Steven Keates said: “It’s an icy start, certainly something to watch out for first thing in the morning.”
The yellow warning covers the East Midlands, East, London, South East, North East, North West, South West, and Yorkshire and Humber.
A similar warning was also in force for this morning, with light snow showers expected in some areas. Four inches were forecast for the North East.
Scotland had 12in of snow at the weekend. An inch fell on London and the South East, and a foot in the Midlands.
Temperatures dropped below freezing, and winds of up to 70mph in the North and Wales made it feel like -8C.
Heavy snowfall brought transport to a halt yesterday.
Lincolnshire Police said up to 35 vehicles were stuck overnight Saturday in snow drifts on the A158 near Edlington. Officers spent seven hours digging and towing them out between Baumber and Horncastle.
Other roads blocked by snow and stranded vehicles were the A38 north- bound between Birmingham and Burton, A3 southbound at Thursley, and A331 Blackwater Valley relief road. Three snowploughs were dispatched to the M62 after the bad weather brought traffic to a standstill with sections closed.
The Greater Manchester Police traffic unit said conditions were “bleak” on the transPennine route.
Cheshire Police yesterday warned drivers there was “no route to safely cross the Pennines into Cheshire”.
The A54, A537 Cat and Fiddle and B5470 were all closed or blocked.
Bristol airport was shut yesterday morning and more than 100 flights were cancelled at Heathrow, West London.
The wintry weather also led to disapScotland
pointment for sports fans and runners. Derby’s Sky Bet Championship clash with Cardiff was ditched at Pride Park yesterday due to snow, as was rugby union’s Anglo-Welsh Cup final between Bath and Exeter.
In rugby league, Castleford’s Super League clash with Wigan was called off.
The Reading Half Marathon – which was expecting more than 19,000 runners to participate – was cancelled yesterday, as was the Falmouth Half Marathon.
HYPOTHERMIA
On Saturday the Monster obstacle course race went ahead at Escot Park, Devon, despite a yellow weather warning, but had to be stopped when reports came in of runners with hypothermia.
And in North Yorkshire, more than 100 amateur athletes had to be rescued during a race on Saturday night.
More than 30 were suffering from hypothermia, and some had to be airlifted from the North York Moors.
It’s an icy start, certainly something to watch out for first thing in the morning STEVEN KEATES, MET OFFICE METEOROLOGIST ON YELLOW WARNING
Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team was called out to locate and rescue dozens of others, using all-terrain vehicles. It comes after the Beast from the East brought havoc to the UK earlier this month.
One pair of newlyweds told how they are still hoping to celebrate properly after blizzards scuppered their big day.
Geoff and Julie Bodman tied the knot on St David’s Day, despite most guests being unable to make it due to more than 50cm of snow in South Wales.
Geoff, from Tremorfa, Cardiff, said: “We picked March 1 because it is a special day for us, but as the day went on and the snow started falling we got a bit worried. We were getting married at the City Hall and I got a call from them at lunchtime, asking if we could do it earlier.” The couple managed bring it forward by half an hour but, as well as many guests being absent, the music for the ceremony did not work because the wi-fi was down and the newly-weds had to have some pictures taken in a blizzard. Then, when they got to the reception, the DJ rang to say he was not going to be able to make it. Geoff, 54, said: “We managed to get some music on my phone and play it through some tinny speakers, but it wasn’t quite what we had planned.
Family and friends have rallied around the couple and paid for them to have another reception next month.
Meteorologist Mr Keates said the weather was due to brighten later today.
He said: “Away from the South West, where we can see the dregs of [yesterday’s] weather, there’s a lot of dry, fine weather to come on Monday.
“Increasing amounts of sunshine, just the odd shower towards the north.
“Temperatures are still below average for the time of year, but 4C to 7C is better than what we’ve seen at the weekend.
“That warming trend slowly continues through the rest of the week. So it’s slowly turning milder, temperatures approaching average by the end of the week.”
But he warned: “We’ll see wind and rain through the second half of the week.”