Snow Across Britain BBC News Special

Good evening and welcome to this BBC News Special. First sum, the

snow fall has been enjoyable but others it has been disruptive,

inconvenient and in some cases dangerous. Forecasters had

predicted it for days. Even so, for thousands it met power failures,

road closures and plane and train cancellations. We will have the

latest on the trouble situation and the important forecast on what the

weather holds in store for the coming days. First, we look back at

the day. On a gloomy Friday morning, snow

swept in. Up the Bristol Channel, over the Welsh mountains, into the

Midlands and beyond. Parts of Wales had been told to expect one foot of

snow, and a red warning from the Met Office. It brought trouble

headaches to more and more of us. Roads were blocked and schools and

workplaces closed. Commuters who tuned to local radio found little

to encourage them. Those who ventured out, on foot, on four

wheels, must have wished they had not. Work said not to bother

turning in today. Those who opted for an early start had made a wise

choice. Snow ploughs and gritters made an effort to keep major routes

open, but inevitably, some vehicles came to grief. One passenger filmed

these pictures of the M4 motorway near Bath, gridlocked by an

accident. Sharing its problems with motorways in the Midlands and West

Yorkshire. Again, the most significant disruption affected

minor routes and regions where travellers were advised to stay at

home. This is the worst I've known it for a few years. Raids have been

bad. In places where the salt is not working. Throughout the day it

tightened its grip on airports with 400 flights cancelled at Heathrow

where both runways were closed for a time. At Birmingham, passengers

revised their plans. In Southampton, they have to wait until this

afternoon to see flights resume. We had time to prepare. Trains were re

scheduled and roads gritted. We were warned that whatever we did

there would be disruption to transport and this the most

widespread snow this winter has lived up to expectations. Rail

operators reported difficulties across England and Wales. Delays

and cancellations have extended into the Friday rush-hour. The

weather is easing but there is no talk of a thaw. Those who have to

travel and those who are enabling them to do so face the threat of

ice and further snow. The forecast is we will continue with snow may

be overnight. We are saying to drivers to drive carefully and only

if necessary. There are those for whom the wintry blast is a novelty.

Tigers at Longleat sizing up a snowman. Skiers are hunting for an

urban black run in Bristol. And sledge owners looking ahead to the

days when temperatures will remain below freezing ahead of more snow

just as we turn our thoughts to a fresh working week.

Some of the worst conditions are in Wales, which was hit hardest. In

some areas, 25 centimetres bow. In South Wales, thin red warning is in

place meaning that the weather poses a risk to life. One of the

worst-affected areas was Merthyr Tydfil. With grit and a fair bit of

determination. The town of Merthyr Tydfil is trying to deal with what

the weather has thrown at it. Up to one foot of snow fell on the heads

of the South Wales valleys. Many who battled to work quickly turned

around. It is a nightmare. I own a business. I opened for 30 minutes.

I closed because it will cost more in electricity to keep the lights

on. Probably I might get away till Monday or Tuesday. It is a weekend

off. We closed early. We are walking down to the car, hope for

the to get home. -- hopefully. Getting home will not be easy. Main

roads have been closed for part of the day. The red warning for this

area will remain in place until 9pm. This road goes through that red

zone. The main deal carriageway connecting their heads of the

valleys. Normally it would be busy with commuters. Today, just a few

are venturing out. With blizzards forecast to continue into the night,

many have heeded warnings and stayed at home. Others seem

determined to ride out the conditions until the worst has

passed. For thousands of children, it meant

a day off school, unless they had to sit examinations. Duncan Kennedy

was in the West Country. Schools have been badly hit.

Massive disruption across the country. I am at a school in

Bristol. It was close today. We calculate 1,000 schools across the

southern part of Britain have been caught up in a bad weather.

Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Warwickshire, Hampshire and the

Isle of Wight and into Gloucestershire, tens of thousands

of students were forced to go home. We are not just talking about

disruption to the timetable, but also examinations.

School's out the winter. Hundreds in the south-west are closed with

students and teachers told to stay off the roads. Everywhere you go,

it is like this. Treacherous conditions. I am on the road just

off the M5 motorway in Gloucestershire, luckily in a 4x4.

I would not want to tackle the roads in a normal vehicle. Even

though gritters have been through, the snow covers it within a few

seconds. At this school, some have to get in because they are sitting

GCSE and A-level examinations. Classrooms were kept especially

warm. The weather added unwanted pressure. Ice everywhere. We got

hit in the end. The eager spirit to go and do your best! They are

friends who will not be able to make it in and they will have to

sit the examination in the summer. I got here half-an-hour early, took

the examination and I have an hour- and-a-half -- walk back.

Oxfordshire, 50 schools closed, including this one. In the south,

Hampshire and the Isle of Wight closed 400 schools. This one in

Southampton, the only people to turn up with these plastics

students. And what about this? Students from Bristol University

Ski Club with a different degree on their minds today. The sub-zero

variety that saw them turn the city centre into cross country. Unlike

their studies, it was downhill all the way. The concern now is whether

the school gates will open on Monday. The advice we have is to

continue checking the weather education authority and for your

individual school. We have a story that came into us.

At least one school stayed open thanks to a resource for

headteacher. The Tex said, I thought everyone would like to hear

about Greenfylde School School, in Ilminster, the headmaster, Mr John

Jeffrey, slept at school overnight. A wonderful school. It sounds like

it. Please keep your pictures and text messages coming in. Give your

name and say where you are from. You can also send them by e-mail.

We can get the latest on the travel situation. We will be speaking to

our reporter who can talk about the railways, but first, over to

Heathrow. The latest news is that 423 flights

out of 1300 aircraft movements at Heathrow have been cancelled today.

For a time, North and South runways were closed. That was while

clearing equipment was out. Reduced visibility was a problem, which

meant the number of flights had to be spaced out more. The situation

at other London airports, Gatwick airport, they say the situation is

improving. There are cancellations. again. They closed for a 11 hours.

They said as they clear at the snow from the wrong way, it fell again.

Birmingham was closed for most of the day. It opened an Arab go.

Cardiff airport is also open. -- it opened one hour ago. Later tonight

at Heathrow, they will have 500 people at clearing the wrong way.

They have doubled the size of the fleet of vehicles to clear the snow

and ice. That is the situation at the airport. Now the situation on

the trains. About nine railway companies have

been seriously affected today it also Eurostar. They had services

disrupted. First Great Western, South Eastern, South West trains,

London Midland trains, Greater Anglia, welsh trains were affected.

That was because of the red warning airier. -- region. There was

extensive disruption. We have spoken to people at the station I

am at. It is one of the London commuter stations. Many people told

us they had not had too bad a journey. Because the amended

service was introduced. As long as you could get onto a train, you did

not do too badly. They said they were very fall. There are cars

behind me in the car-park. -- full. It has been a painful rush hour.

The forecasters have been predicting this for days. John

Hammond is with me. Why has it been so heavy this time? There are good

reasons. There is something peculiar going on in the atmosphere.

The Met Office has been keeping an eye on something for weeks now, a

sudden, stratospheric warning. It is normally very cold in the

wintertime, but unusually it suddenly warns. The effect of that

is normally it is reversed. The winds start coming from the other

direction. That percolates down the atmosphere, so that the jet stream,

which brings as mild, wet and windy weather in from the West, that gets

slower and it is eventually blocked. We rely on those mild westerly

winds. However, once that Jetstream gets blocked, that opens the gates

to Calder, easterly winds coming in. That is exactly what has happened

over the last week or so. That is an important area of research. We

now have the capability to predict these stratospheric warming us. We

can prepare for this winter spell. We knew it was coming. The question

is, how long is it going to last? wane, its effects on the surface

last quite a few longer these days. The question everybody wants to

know is how long is it going to last? For several days we have got

that blocked easterly winds. The Atlantic weather systems are trying

to come in, but they get blocked the east. It is a battleground over

the UK. Moister and cold air equals snow.

John will be back at the end of the programme with all the details. Now

it is time for the news where you are.

Around London the worst affected areas have been to the south and

west of the capital where about 10 centimetres of snow had fallen.

Inside the city there have been fewer problems, although train

services are delayed. In a moment, we will take a look at

Hertfordshire. Alice Bhandhukravi is at Euston station.

rail or bus, things have been particularly to services out of

Heathrow. At Euston they are running a 75% service. Virgin

and London to Birmingham, they have reduced the number of trains per

hour. South West trains have a revised timetable and generally

speaking train services to the south are the ones most affected by

the weather. The main advice is to check before you travel.

there? How people cope may welcome down to how well prepared they are.

telling us it has gone out of its way to prepare gritting no fewer

than four times in the past 24 hours. In the pub you can see

behind me people say they could last up to a week. They say they

are used to this, they get cut off perhaps every other year, so they

had got of the stocks end. Will it roads are open, but the minor roads

Counties enjoyed an additional day off school. 604 were closed due to

the weather. We have been looking at how the capital fared with the

first big snow of the winter. Early afternoon outside King's

coming down, spirits remained high. Have your travel plans being

affected? No, we are very good. you carrying on as normal? Exactly.

Some Eurostar services have been cancelled, but disruption is kept

to a minimum. Nearby things are not Primrose Hill experienced drivers

had an uphill battle. You have got to stay away from the hills, really.

I got stuck a couple of times. Heathrow Airport has spent millions

trying to improve its ability to cope with heavy snowfall. Today

more than 400 flights were cancelled. It is gridlocked here.

All the parking bays are full, waiting for planes to either leave

or be de-iced. They said it would be least another hour. Tonight at

Waterloo East staff told us the station has been quieter than

normal, many commuters taking the advice to work from home or leave

early. Others were still frustrated there were some delays on South

Eastern services. We are a bit in the dark as to what the timetable

is going to be, because it is a shame. Perhaps this is the way to

travel, through the blizzards in Richmond, on a day when London was

put to the test. weekend and you can follow that

travel situation on our radio station. This is the view in

central London. Welcome back and as we were hearing,

there has been widespread travel disruption across the road, rail

and air networks, but it would have been worse if it were not for the

thousands of people keeping things moving. In Stansted they have been

working around the clock to keep things clear.

This is the airfield operations duty manager on a 12 hour shift.

Temperature minus two. The big challenge to keep half-a-million

square metres of runways, taxiways and aircraft stands clear of snow

and ice. They have handled over 300 flights today, although there were

some delays. A familiar ritual in the sub-zero temperatures, a de-

icing team at work on an aircraft. While some other airports faced

major disruption, here at the snow remained light, the worst did not

happen. On the north side of the airfield

literally millions of pounds worth of heavy equipment is standing by

in case of that proverbial white- out. We have got machines that cut

through banks of snow, we have got machines that here ice and snow

ploughs. As we filmed, conditions worsened. A quarter of a million

pound de-icing machine cruised to one of the main taxi ways to keep

the ice at bay. Our main concern is to keep the airport as safe as

possible and if we have concerns, we will close areas. But this

morning we have been out and put down a runway the eyes set on all

of the surfaces and so far we have had very like snow. It has not

caused us any major problems. We have been able to accept a couple

of diversions from London City Airport this morning as well. There

is an element of luck, but we have a good resource in a place.

number of other flights have been on standby to meet the challenge of

a freezing weekend. Well the airports have been

battling to stay open, in local communities people have been

pulling together to help the most vulnerable during the big freeze.

Through the snow belt of suburban Britain at something is moving. Not

the police or rescue agencies, but still they regard their mission as

essential. Meals on wheels. We go out in all weather, nothing stops

us. We do not stop, we carry on. For people like this lady it is a

lifeline, hot shepherd's pie on a cold day. She said she would be

here in all weather and it is great. It is nice to see somebody on a day

like this. With these conditions it is hard to get anywhere. A 4x4 can

help and Tracey is one of the team volunteering for the West Midlands

Ambulance Service, moving patients and essential personnel. In weather

like this they get a lot more calls and they need to get the ambulances

out. This lady is clearly delighted with the door to door service.

There is nothing like a bit of snow to get this sort of reaction from

the professionals and the volunteers, all of them determined

to keep things moving whatever the conditions. It is invaluable. They

get staff into work so that we can provide a good service. All this

snow means that even on foot getting around is not easy. In

Smethwick local people are clearing their own streets. The shovels are

provided by the council, the muscle and sweat provided by volunteers.

He cannot expect the council to do everything for you all the time.

These extraordinary conditions may continue for days demanding an

extraordinary community response. It is funny the stories that days

like today throw up. Buzz Aldrin, famous for walking on the Moon

where temperatures dropped to minus 153 degrees. Nevertheless, his

flight was cancelled from Heathrow to Edinburgh. This is him taking

photographs of himself travelling standard class from King's Cross to

Edinburgh. A fellow traveller let him use his laptop so he could keep

in touch. And here is somebody who thought she would never sit next to

The winter weather is not over yet and John is here and there is more

or freezing temperatures and snow There is plenty more to come in the

days ahead. Let's look back at what we have had during the course of

the day. There is a red warning from the Met Office in Wales. Many

Northern Ireland is badly affected. some disruption. The snow is

blowing around, still that gusty wind. Flurries around in southern

back later on during the night. There are very icy conditions

across the whole of the country. It will not get much warmer tomorrow

it. Ice will be a hazard. Further outbreaks of snow across parts of

eastern Scotland, particularly on the higher ground. There will be

flurries scattered around across the country. Not great amounts, but

locally we could see another centimetre or so. It is a bleak

morning with that raw Eastern or North Eastern wind. That will blow

up the snow around. We could see further drifting. Temperatures will

not get much above freezing. In the more rural areas, they will

probably stay below freezing all day long. This weekend there is no

sign of it warming up. It will be around. Then on Sunday there is

potential for more snow. This time it is coming from the south from

France and spreads to Eastern areas. We could see five centimetres. That