Saturday, January 19, 2013

More snow chaos forecast for UK - Sky News Australia


More snow chaos forecast for UK


The big freeze across the UK is set to last, with more snow expected next week.


With travel chaos across the country and Britain's busiest airport being likened to a 'refugee camp' amid more than 100 cancelled flights, forecasters predicted further misery in the coming days.


Following Friday's deluge of snow, much of Saturday's snowfall was limited to the northeast of England and the east of Scotland.


But on Sunday a blanket of snow is expected to fall across more of the nation, hitting London and the South East of England first before moving north.


Freezing temperatures which have chilled the UK for the past week will also combine with more snow in northern England as next week begins, Ms Caldwell added.


There were angry scenes at London's Heathrow Airport as travellers had to sleep on the floor for a second day after flights continued to be hit by the weather.


Frustrated passengers claimed they were not given enough information as 67 departures were grounded and 33 arrivals cancelled.


Tempers frayed in Terminal 5, with accusations of queue-jumping in the lengthy lines.


Steve Greenwood, from Yorkshire, who was travelling to Seoul with his wife, shouted at a group of passengers, saying they 'just push in where they want'.


Mr Greenwood was one of a number of passengers hitting out at British Airways, adding: 'BA stands for bloody awful.'


BA and the airport insisted they were doing everything they could in difficult circumstances.


Travellers at regional airports including Leeds Bradford, Humberside and Newcastle were also frustrated by delays and disruption caused by the wintry weather.


Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester Airports were running normally but advised passengers to check with their airlines.


Train passengers did not fare much better, with reduced services across the country.


Virgin Trains cancelled a number of services from the capital to Birmingham and Manchester and others were delayed.


The freezing temperatures also prompted road groups to issue warnings.


Darron Burness, the AA's head of special operations, said: 'With the snow compacting down and turning icy, we're likely to see treacherous driving conditions throughout the weekend.


'Any fresh snow on top will just add to the problems.'


The RAC said it had dealt with nearly 9000 breakdowns - 10 per cent more than usual.


Following a joint decision by Heathrow, airlines and air traffic control, the flight schedule at Heathrow on Sunday will be reduced in an effort to minimise disruption caused by snow and low visibility.


Latest forecasts are for a high probability of around 2-6cm of accumulating snow and low visibility at periods throughout the day.


Heathrow said this will reduce the capacity of the airport and without action would cause significant disruption to passengers and flights.


The flight schedule will therefore be reduced by 20 per cent and details of which flights will be cancelled will be announced by airlines when they have finalised their schedules, a statement said.


Passengers were also warned it is possible that weather conditions at other European airports will increase the number of cancellations.


When there is low visibility, more space has to be left between aircraft.


Many airports have plenty of spare runway capacity so aircraft can be spaced out more during low visibility without causing delays and cancellations.


Because Heathrow operates at almost full capacity, they say there is simply no room to reschedule the delayed flights.


Heathrow chief operating officer Normand Boivin apologised for the disruption.



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