Schools are forced to keep their doors shut, roads are blocked and flights are axed on the day Britain was to go back to work after Christmas break.
An airport closed its two runways in heavy snow today as motorways and rail lines were blocked amid ongoing weather warnings after the UK’s coldest night of winter so far.
Icy roads and torrential rain presented additional hazards along with flooding and thawing snow, with 146 flood warnings and 283 alerts issued across England.
Teams at Manchester Airport worked to clear the runways of snow this morning amid delays and diversions for flights, a day after both were shut for the same reason.
The snow also saw hundreds of schools close in northern England today – including in West Yorkshire where 176 were shut in Bradford as well as others in Leeds, Calderdale, Halifax and Kirklees; and across Lancashire in Burnley, Chorley and Rossendale.
The AA had already branded today ‘Miserable Monday’ with the motoring group expecting up to 20 distress calls a minute as many workers head back to the office after two weeks off – with some having not used their car before Christmas.
Meanwhile, thousands of journeys on the M25 in Surrey were delayed as the road was closed from junction 10 for the A3 to junction eight for Reigate due to a lorry crash. Elsewhere, the M5 was closed in Gloucestershire because of ‘extensive flooding’.
Britain also had its coldest night of winter so far, with the temperature dropping to -13.3C (8.1F) at Loch Glascarnoch in the Highlands, but it was much milder in South East England with St James’s Park in London at 11.4C (52.5F) early this morning.
And UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) amber cold weather health alerts for all of England will remain in place until at least January 8 amid continued concerns over ‘significant impacts across health and social care services’ over the coming days.
It comes after most of the UK saw heavy snow or icy rainfall over a wintry weekend that had two larger Met Office amber weather warnings in place, while there were stranded vehicles and collisions which blocked key roads across northern England.
Manchester Airport said later on Monday morning that its runways had reopened after being closed because of severe weather.
See a clip of the snowing here.
