Airports close amid some of the worst weather the UK has seen!

Weather - From the Met Office Official Website

Snow showers for eastern coasts. Dry and very cold elsewhere.

This Evening and Tonight:

Snow across southeastern parts of the UK will move away after midnight and most of the UK will be clear with a widespread severe frost. Snow showers are likely to continue in Northeast England, Eastern Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Sunday:

Most of England and Wales will have a dry, very cold and mostly sunny day. Northeastern parts of England, parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland will see further snow showers.

Updated: 1519 on Sat 18 Dec 2010

Sunny Devon 18 December 2010

News!
Overnight temperatures plunged leaving huge swathes of the country at a standstill.  London's airports cancelled flights as they closed runways due to the icy conditions.  Also many regional airports closed as the icy conditions made runways unsafe! 

Airports in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands are also suffering cancellations and delays.

Officials have advised all passengers to check their flight status before travelling to their designated airport.

Belfast City Airport was closed last night while all flights were suspended at Belfast International Airport. Air passengers also faced disruptions at Exeter, London City, Aberdeen and Cardiff. 

From the BBC website 

"Gatwick reopened at 1445 GMT after 10cm of snow was cleared from the runway but delays and cancellations are expected for the rest of the day.

British Airways, Easyjet and Aer Lingus have cancelled all flights from the airport for the rest of Saturday, with the exception of the BA2055 to Sharm el Sheikh.

BA has cancelled all shorthaul flight from Heathrow for the rest of the day, and longhaul flights until at least 1900 GMT."

December 18 - Glasgow

Overnight blizzards and plummeting temperatures buckled a huge chunk of the nation's road network and hundreds of motorists were stranded overnight on the M6 Motorway in Greater Manchester.  Similar conditions have been reported in Germany and Italy.

Temperatures dropped as low as minus 13C in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, overnight with Gatwick producing a reading of minus 11C. 


This debilitating weather is certainly going to cause havoc in the run up to Christmas.  The last week before Christmas is the busiest of the year for retailers and courier companies.  Consumers are uncertain how to proceed with ordered goods - to cancel and get a refund or to wait and hope!  Christmas holiday makers too are facing the uncertainty of cancelled flights.  


This is set to be a Christmas that people wont forget in a hurry.  Next year - watch this space - Christmas shopping will be done a lot earlier I am sure!

Snow and Ice grip the UK in unseasonal Freeze!

-17 degrees Centigrade - coldest recorded temperatures in a quarter of a century!
Drivers across the UK have been warned to be extra careful as the working week commences tomorrow.  Unfortunately where the snow has been cleared the extreme cold has ensured that the ice takes over and an even more serious risk occurs as ice is not so easily visible.

This is the earliest widespread snowfall in the UK since 1993.  Last winter's extreme weather conditions made sure that the council's have stocked up on grit and salt for the roads.  However, they were not expecting the weather to be so challenging so early in the season.  This may mean that in the traditionally bad weather months of January and February, the local Council's may well have run out of the grit and salt needed.


Snow and Ice have closed Jersey airport today and although its now open again its a rare occurrence for Jersey to be this badly affected.
There are early warnings of more to come on Monday and Tuesday, with eastern counties again the most at risk.  Apparently, according to the BBC weather experts there will be the added problem of quite a severe wind which will hugely increase the cold.

BBC weather forecaster Liam Dutton said:  "It will be really quite strong, so significant wind chill will be an issue. Even where there isn't new snow, what's there already will be blown about and roads that have been cleared could be covered up again."

He went on to say that towards the middle of the week many areas that so far have not been touched will also experience snowy conditions, this includes the South East of England.

The Met Office have issued warnings and urged every region in Scotland, with the exception of part of Strathclyde, to be prepared for frozen roads and snow that could drift in some places.

The whole of Northern Ireland was also told to be on standby for similar conditions

The AA are also experiencing an unprecedented amount of callouts today and they expect that to significantly increase as people try to get to work tomorrow morning. The problem here is that cars have been safely tucked up in a garage on sitting on a drive all weekend and now they need to be persuaded to run in extreme cold temperatures and once running cope with extreme driving conditions.
Of course all the emergency services are concerned about ice because even the treated roads will have patches of it so vigilance is of paramount importance and to not allow complacency to take over when drivers hit the bigger roads. The AA advise drivers to leave extra time to get to work and to exercise extreme caution.

For advice on driving in these conditions 

Airports and trains are the next thing to be affected - this could be the pattern for the next week!