Thanks for reading today and for all your comments. Good luck on your journey home. Here is a summary of the day’s events:
Snow and ice continues to cause widespread disruption across the UK. Dozens of rail services have been affected, including a temporary suspension on the Gatwick Express, delays on the Eurostar to and from London, and at least 20 cancellations on rail services in Scotland.
Almost 3,000 schools have been forced to closed including more than 500 in the east of England, more than 200 each in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, and around 400 in Birmingham. Some parents have complained that schools were shut in areas where there was little or no snow.
Thousands of people were left without power overnight. Western Power Distribution said engineers worked through the night to restore power to 99,500 homes in the Midlands, south Wales and the south-west, but that 7,000 customers were still without electricity, 6,500 of them in the West Midlands. Around 800 homes were also without power in Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.
Up to 200 flights from Heathrow are expected to cancelled as passengers complained of waiting hours for travel to be rescheduled. Flights at other airports were also affected.
The Met Office has extended its yellow weather warnings for snow and ice to cover vast swaths of the country, including London and the south-east, much of the Midlands, Northern Ireland and Wales, as well as the eastern coast of England and northern and western Scotland.
Sunday was the coldest day for seven years with temperatures dipping to -12C in some places. Monday night could be even colder with temperatures forecast to fall as low as -15C.
We’ve been volunteering our staff and 4x4 vehicles to help people who might otherwise be stranded get the medical help they need, despite the snow. Directed by the NHS, our volunteers have been helping ferry people to medical centres so they don’t have to miss appointments, and have been helping doctors and health visitors get to patients in rural locations.
Our 4x4s are usually used for site visits, sampling, or the work of our fisheries teams – work that’s on hold while the snow poses a risk, meaning we can make the best use of our vehicles in these conditions by helping the community, whether by ferrying patients or delivering food or road salt to rural locations.
Airports continue to advise passengers to check for disruption to their flight before travelling.
UPDATE | Disruption continues following yesterday's adverse weather. Please do not travel to the airport if your flight has been cancelled, and contact your airline directly. https://t.co/hs9FmTfDnmpic.twitter.com/BEA4Qw6lFW
Commuters in London worrying about getting home may find that it is not the bad weather hampering their journey.
**UPDATE** Due to a lineside fire at London Waterloo some lines are blocked. Train services running across the whole South Western Railway network may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until the end of the day. https://t.co/gWxn1cw1lb
Snow and ice continues to cause widespread disruption across the UK. Dozens of rail services have been hit, including a temporary suspension on the Gatwick Express, delays on the Eurostar to and from London, and at least 20 cancellations on rail services in Scotland.
Almost 3,000 schools have been forced to closed including more than 500 in the east of England, more than 200 each in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, and around 400 in Birmingham. Some parents have complained that schools were shut in areas where there was little or no snow.
Thousands of people were left without power overnight. Western Power Distribution said engineers worked through the night to restore power to 99,500 homes in the Midlands, south Wales and the south-west, but that 7,000 customers were still without electricity, 6,500 of them in the West Midlands. Around 800 homes were also without power in Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.
Up to 200 flights from Heathrow are expected to cancelled as passengers complained of waiting hours for travel to be rescheduled.
The Met Office has extended its yellow weather warnings for snow and ice to cover vast swaths of the country, including London and the south-east, much of the Midlands, Northern Ireland and Wales, as well as the eastern coast of England and northern and western Scotland.
Sunday was the coldest day for seven years with temperatures dipping to -12C in some places. Monday night could be even colder with temperatures forecast to fall as low as -15C.
Policies should also cover what parents should do if schools close and they have no alternative childcare, said the TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, adding: “It is essential that employers don’t force staff to make dangerous journeys for the sake of presenteeism.
“For many employees the bad weather will have made their commute virtually impossible, but thankfully many bosses now have ‘bad weather’ policies so staff know what is expected of them.”
The TUC also reminded employers to keep their workplaces safe and warm – at least 16°C.
Parents will be! The decision by schools to close because of “snow” when businesses and other public services are operating OK (no choice, really) is not acceptable. Parents must be urged to complain to governing bodies. (I’m a former school governor, btw!) https://t.co/oGfIE7ikQF
Dozens of flights have been cancelled at Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, PA reports.
Heathrow said it was operating three-quarters of its full schedule as airlines dealt with the knock-on effects of Sunday’s heavy snowfall, which turned to ice overnight as temperatures plummeted.
Passengers shared images on social media of long queues and scores of suitcases lined up , while others complained of a lack of information from the airport and airlines.
Among them was Beth Kanter, a non-profit and charities consultant from San Francisco, who said the British Airways flight she boarded was cancelled on Sunday after six hours on the tarmac.
She said she was told on the aircraft that the weather was “an act of god” and that the airline could not pay for a hotel as a result.
She said: “[They were] saying they were waiting for de-ice. Then, they cancelled our flight. Then it took me four hours to get through the immigration line. On the plane, the pilot said we would be able to collect our baggage in baggage reclaim. That was the ‘good news’.
“Then, after standing in line and finally making it through immigration, the baggage area was total chaos. There was baggage on the baggage claims but none of the signs indicated what the flights were.
“There was a huge long line – it must have several hundred people in it – stretching from baggage claim number three to the last one where customer service was. There was one person there.
“Then I noticed a man with a BA sweatshirt come out of a back office with a paper with the list of flights and baggage claim numbers – this was after being in baggage claim for hours, trying to figure out what the hell to do.”
The consultant, whose luggage “filled with holiday gifts” was lost in the chaos, said she asked for information on her flight which was “not on his list”, but eventually received a rebooking for Monday.
“They announced that everyone should go home and come back tomorrow to deal with their bags … people were really pissed off and it was stressful,” she added.
The 60-year-old said she filed a report on the BA website, and managed to book a hotel 30 minutes from the airport as she “did not want to spend the night” at Heathrow.
She added that no one at the airline was answering the phones and described their website as useless and said customer service on was lame.
Fellow American Kenton Keithly, 65, had expected to fly from Newcastle to Heathrow and then to San Francisco on Monday but the connecting flight to the London airport was cancelled on Sunday night. He had to rebook to fly on Tuesday with his partner.
Keithly, of Woodland, California, said both the airport and airline had not learned from similar circumstances in 2010, when he had to spend a night on the floor of departures at Terminal Five.
He said: “I love flying BA, they are incredible in the air but lousy on the ground. Speaking with other passengers in the line last night, we all agreed that BA has learned nothing from seven years ago and Heathrow have failed to address the issue of having enough de-icers to cope with demand when needed.”
A Heathrow spokeswoman said: “Some flights at Heathrow are disrupted today. However, the airport remains open and is operating three-quarters of scheduled flights.
“Before coming to the airport, passengers must check their flight status with their airline. If the status of your flight is cancelled, please do not travel to the airport, keep updated via the airline’s website. We apologise to those whose travel has been impacted and regret the inconveniences that have been caused.”
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