Snow gives way to hazardous black ice

After a weekend of sledging and snowball fights, much of the snow has melted away. Instead, forecasters say the weather is turning frosty – and creating lethal conditions for drivers across England and parts of Wales.

The Met Office has issued nine severe weather alerts across England, warning of ice as a potential hazard on roads and pavements.

Commuters and travellers across England, apart from the south west, and in south east Wales have been urged to take allow extra time for their journey and if driving, to take supplies in case cars are stranded.

Heathrow cancelled 40 flights on Monday, but hopes to resume a normal service by the end of the day.

A 25 mile stretch of the A1 northbound in North Yorkshire was shut this morning after a series of accidents on the road following what police called “treacherous” conditions.

No-one is thought to have been injured as a result of the accidents, the first of which happened at around 2.15am between Allerton Park, near York, and the Catterick area, when a lorry left the road because of icy conditions.

A number of cars were also affected by the weather conditions and police attended several reports of vehicles which had left the road at locations including Kirby Fleetham, Fencote and Leeming Bar.

Temperatures hovered around freezing in most areas early today on Monday, but Church Fenton in Yorkshire recorded a temperature of minus 8.6C with visibility less than 100 metres.

Read more from Weather Presenter Liam Dutton: The snow has stopped, but ice will continue

In Kent and Medway, 20 primary and secondary schools were closed or shut for part of the day while in East Sussex, the weather caused 40 schools to close. In the north east, only four schools were closed as a result of weather conditions.

Most of the UK’s snow fell on Saturday night, covering some areas with 16cm.

Three teenagers were badly hurt in County Durham after a car skidded on to a pavement. The trio, all from the Eldon area, were taken to hospital after being hit by a Ford Fiesta at 5.30pm on Saturday.

A Durham police spokesman said the driver was unable to slow down because of ice on the road and collided with the teenagers who were on the footpath.

One of the teenagers suffered serious injuries to both legs, hips and his pelvis. The others, both aged 18, sustained broken legs and were admitted to Darlington Memorial where they were due to have surgery.

Risk of fog and ice

Liam Dutton, Channel 4 News Weather Presenter said: “Whilst the snow may have stopped falling, the next major concern will be widespread ice – especially for central and eastern parts of the UK where snow thaws slightly during today, then quickly freezes again tonight.

“As well as ice, there is likely to be some fog, especially where snow is still on the ground and milder air moves over the cold surfaces and condenses.”

Some of Monday’s coldest temperatures will be in East Anglia and south-east England which are likely to hit 1C or 2C.

But further west in Cornwall, Wales and Northern Ireland, temperatures are set to increase to 10C.

Scotland and northern England are likely to have sunshine and dry weather if the fog lifts. But the weather is unlikely to get much warmer over the next 10 days.

Heathrow cancellations

Heathrow airport cancelled half of its flights on Sunday night after 6cm of snow, but a spokeswoman said they hoped normal service would resume, adding: “There may be some cancellations and reshuffling as a result of yesterday’s disruption.”

Snow began to melt on Sunday, clearing Heathrow’s runways, taxiways and stands at Heathrow, but only 50 per cent of the 1,300 scheduled flights went ahead.

A spokesman for Heathrow said the move was designed to minimise disruption and prevent passengers arriving at the airport if their flight was going to be cancelled.

Heathrow insisted its “snow plan” had worked “far better” than in previous years.

“We took the decision with airlines and air traffic control yesterday to reduce the flight schedule in advance,” a spokesman said.

“By cancelling flights in advance airlines have been able to rebook some people on to flights that are departing, and passengers have had better quality information about whether they can fly or not.”

But many travellers were not impressed. Philippa Britton, from Kendal, Cumbria, who was transiting through London on a trip from Hong Kong to Manchester said: “On the flight into London lots of people were astonished that so many flights had been cancelled.

“It’s unbelievable. The runways seemed clear and they have cancelled the flights.”

She added: “Our midnight flight from Hong Kong was cancelled – it has been chaotic. And now one of our bags has been lost.”