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Fresh snow and ice warnings have been issued as freezing weather is continuing to cause travel chaos, school closures and multiple major incidents to be declared due to widespread flooding that has left children stranded.
Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) said it declared a major incident in response to widespread flooding across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland on Monday morning, after receiving more than 200 calls. Crews have freed cars stuck in flood water, evacuated residents from flooded homes, and rescued at least 17 members of the public.
Lincolnshire Resilience Forum announced that a major incident had been declared in Lincolnshire on Monday afternoon, with emergency services having to rescue children stranded at a school in Edenham amid flooding.
In North Yorkshire, police said the body of a man had been recovered on Monday from an area of flooding in Beal, near Eggborough and Knottingley.
Officers believe he entered the water on Saturday or Sunday. Police said the man has been formally identified, but efforts to trace his next of kin were ongoing, adding that there are currently no suspicious circumstances surrounding the discovery.
The Met Office issued three yellow warnings for snow and ice, which come into force across large parts of the UK on Monday afternoon and last into Tuesday. Another yellow warning for snow will then be in place on Wednesday.
Many commuters suffered travel disruption heading into work on the first Monday morning of the new year, with major roads closed and railway lines blocked as heavy rain and thawing snow caused flooding.
At 4pm, the Environment Agency had 177 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, and 311 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible, active across England. At the same time, National Resources Wales had one flood warnings and 18 flood alerts in place.
Hundreds of schools were closed on Monday, in areas including Lancashire, Yorkshire and north-east Scotland, on what should have been the first day back for many pupils.
Manchester Airport’s two runways were also closed early on Monday morning because of heavy snow but later reopened. Three departures for Monday were cancelled and a number of other flights were delayed.
Meanwhile, many people travelling to Gatwick Airport have been affected as tens of thousands of journeys on the M25 in Surrey were delayed following a crash involving a lorry. The motorway has been closed in the anti-clockwise direction from junction 10 for the A3 to junction eight for Reigate after the lorry crashed into the central reservation and came to a rest sideways across the carriageway.
The fresh disruption comes after the UK’s coldest night of the winter so far, with a temperature of -13.3C recorded in Loch Glascarnoch in the Highlands, between Ullapool and Inverness, overnight on Sunday.
The Met Office advised people to be prepared for yet more ice and snow – more than 5cm in the worst hit areas – after the weekened saw heavy snow and icy rainfall across the country, which caused runway closures, rail service cancellations, and key roads across northern England to be blocked by vehicles and collisions.
Several stretches of A-roads across England have also been closed on Monday because of the further severe weather.
These include the A66 in Cumbria in both directions between the A1M and the M6 because of snow, and the A628 Woodhead Pass in South Yorkshire/Derbyshire in both directions between the A616 for Flouch and the A57 for Hollingworth because of flooding.
The A46 in Warwickshire has also been closed in both directions between the A452 for Kenilworth and the M40 (junction 15) because of a crash, with National Highways saying “a car is reported to have aquaplaned due to flooding in the area”. Aquaplaning is when a driver loses control because a layer of water prevents their tyres from gripping the road.
Severe weather has also caused widespread disruption on the railway network.
Flooding forced the closure of all railway lines between Derby and both Nottingham and East Midlands Parkway, affecting CrossCountry and East Midlands Railway services, with those operators also disrupted by flooding closing all lines between Peterborough and Leicester.
Great Western Railway said its trains between Bristol Parkway and Gloucester were running at a reduced speed because of “heavy rain flooding the railway”, while TransPennine Express said severe weather was causing the same issue for its services between Barnetby and Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire.
Flooding has also meant Transport for Wales services between Manchester and North Wales have only been able to operate between Warrington Bank Quay and Manchester.
A warning for snow and ice is in place across most of south-west England and Wales, and parts of north-west England and the West Midlands, for between 5pm on Monday until 10am on Tuesday.
The same warning has been issued for western and northern parts of Scotland for between 4pm on Monday until midday on Tuesday, and in Northern Ireland between 3pm on Monday until 11am on Tuesday.
There is a separate warning for snow in southern England on Wednesday from 9am until 11.59pm.
Met Office chief meteorologist Frank Saunders said: “Hail, sleet or snow showers are expected to affect parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland, spreading to Wales and parts of north-west England this evening, before moving into part of south-west England, the Midlands and southern England during the early hours of Tuesday.
“Rain or hail is more likely towards some western coasts.
“Icy stretches which develop overnight as a result of these showers, or the recent wet conditions, could bring some disruption to travel.
“In addition to the ice, we could see snow accumulations of a few centimetres above 200 metres, with a chance of greater than 5cm above 200 metres in Wales.
“The heaviest snow showers may also produce temporary accumulations of 0-2cm at low levels.
“It is not possible to say exactly where this snow might fall, so it’s important that people are prepared.”
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