Wintry welcome
While the capital celebrated its first ‘snowfall’ yesterday, much of Britain will wake today to severe conditions
A dog walker wends his way through snowy woods near Whitby, North Yorkshire, after wintry weather swept down the east coast. Although many areas were hit by travel disruption, power cuts and school closures, most took the onset of winter with stoicism – unlike many Londoners, who at the first brief flurry of snowflakes reacted with near-hysterical excitement on social media
JB PRIESTLEY said the first fall of snow was “not just an event, but a magical event” that enchanted all who saw it. So the English author would have understood the childlike excitement that gripped Londoners yesterday when a flurry of snowflakes swirled briefly through the capital.
Workers rushed from their desks to video the fleeting spectacle, and even Clarence House tweeted footage of snow outside St James’s Palace, with a grinning snowmen emoji.
However, Britons battling power cuts, snowdrifts and storms in the north and east were quick to point out that London’s light dusting of powder was not much to write home about. Andrew Bovie, the MP for West Aberdeenshire, where bad weather closed schools and caused rush-hour gridlock, posted an image of snowtopped fields in Scotland, with the caption: “Dear London friends ... THIS is snow.”
Aaron Gillies, author of How to Survive the End of The World, also mocked the outpouring of wintry glee in the capital, posting on Twitter: “It’s snowing in London. The city is hysterical. Panic buy milk. Panic buy huskies. Panic buy snow booze. The city is doomed.”
Likewise, the BBC’S Jeremy Vine posted a video showing Londoners filming the snowfall near Broadcasting House. “The tragedy of living in London,” he tweeted. “There are four flakes of snow and the media people in offices opposite Radio 2 start filming it.” By last night, the hashtag #Prayforlondon had emerged on Twitter with people competing to show how little chaos had befallen capital, while others urged Londoners to “stay calm”.
Meanwhile, drivers were trapped in four-mile queues on the A171 near Whitby in North Yorkshire, after up to 3in of snow blocked the road, while farmers used tractors to pull cars from drifts.
Police forces across the country warned drivers to beware of icy roads.
Nineteen schools in Aberdeenshire were closed due to the weather.
The Met Office issued yellow warnings for icy patches and snow covering swathes of the east coast of England and northern Scotland, and for ice in western Wales, Cornwall and much of Northern Ireland.
Today, Britain will wake up to a bitterly cold snap on the first day of the meteorological winter.
Helen Roberts, a Met Office forecaster, said central parts of England would see cold autumn sunshine, with showers most likely in eastern and northern parts of the UK.
“There could be an accumulation but probably not a lot, like the North York Moors, where we have already got a few centimetres. Otherwise it will feel cold, with temperatures in the low to mid single figures. With the wind chill factor particularly, it will feel quite a lot colder in some places. It will definitely feel sub-zero and a temperature of 3C could feel more like minus 3C.”
Ms Roberts said it was “not impossible” for further sleet and snow to reach northern and northeastern parts of London, but added: “It would be fleeting and it would not settle.”
She added that last night could be the coldest of the season in England with the mercury sinking below the 20F (-6.3C) recorded in Topcliffe, North Yorkshire, on Nov 25.
“It could well fall below that to make it the coldest of the autumn. It would be isolated and, more widely, temperatures are likely to be between minus 4C and 2C.
“And we are likely to see further warnings for ice.”