Cold weather set to last as snow blankets most of britain

Heavy overnight snowfalls across Britain were the first front of a wintry snap forecast to last until the end of the week.

Blizzards caused havoc in Scotland and Wales yesterday, closing mountain passes and making driving treacherous. A postman died in Dyfed when his van crashed into a jeep in deep snow.

The London Weather Centre said the bitterly cold weather was moving slowly eastwards and would cover the country by this morning. A spokesman said everywhere would see at least a few inches of snow, except for Kent and East Anglia.

The Scottish Borders was worst hit by yesterday's snowfalls, receiving at least 12 inches.

Large sections of the A74, the main road from England to Glasgow, were closed. Most motor­ways in Strathclyde were down to one lane.

Thousands of schoolchildren in Scotland, Wales and the Lake District were sent home because their schools were shut, and hundreds of workers at the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria had to spend last night at work because they were snowed in.

Temperatures will be around freezing point around most of the country, according to the London Weather Centre, but strong south-easterly winds will make it feel colder.

The National Grid does not expect to have any problem maintaining supply during the snowy period, a spokesman said. There were fears during the cold spell last month that power might be cut off in some parts of the country because of high demands for electricity.

(From The Guardian, February 6, 1996)

Hard Frost in Kent

Kent has shivered with the rest of the country all this week, and in some places temperatures have been as low as those recorded in the unusually cold winter of 1947.

On Wednesday night the thermometer at East Mailing recorded 10° F (22 degrees of frost). Yesterday at 10 a.m. it had risen only 8 degrees to 18.

The River Medway at Maidstone was frozen in places and boys were out skating.

People in many places found pipes frozen when they got up yester­day morning. In many country districts wells could not be used. Thick ice had to be broken so that animals could get drinking water.

In Ashford, where there were fifteen degrees of frost on Wednesday night, butchers had to work hard to cut up frozen meat. They were watched by housewives, who wondered whether they would get meat for the week-end.

(from С. E. Eckersley)

Fog and Floods in Many Parts of the Country

Further flooding occurred yesterday in many parts of the coun­try. Forty roads in seventeen counties south of a line from Liverpool to the Humber were said to be under water.

An Automobile Association report last night said that in parts of Derbyshire fog was reducing visibility to between ten and fifty yards in some places. Between Manchester and Sheffield visibility was down to ten yards. In Scotland fog was thick and there was ice on the roads in parts of Lanarkshire and Dumfriesshire.

In the Stour valley, in Suffolk and Essex, the river overflowed along a twenty-mile length, and the floods were described as the worst in the district since 1947.

The Severn, at Worcester, had risen two feet during the night to a level ten feet above normal. It was overflowing again at several points in the city for the fifth time in two months.

More than £500,000 of damage is said to have been caused to many small farms and other properties in Pembroke during the night of November 29, when a wind of 130 m.p.h. was recorded in the county.

(from A. S. Hornby)