Heaviest snow in decades batters Britain and Ireland

Snow storms from Siberia blasted Britain and Ireland yesterday with the worst weather since 1991, trapping several hundred motorists on roads in Scotland, closing thousands of schools and grounding planes.With up to 90cm of snow and temperatures as low as minus 10.3 Celsius in Scotland, Britain and Ireland issued their most severe red warnings which advise people to stay at home as travel is too dangerous.More freezing snowy weather, including icy gales in Scotland, was forecast for coming days.Hundreds of people were trapped in their cars on the M80 motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh.Flights and trains were cancelled across both Britain and Ireland — with similar transport problems seen in parts of continental Europe.One doctor said staff were snowed in at a hospital near Glasgow, and another doctor told the BBC of a surgeon colleague who walked almost three hours in the snow to the town of Paisley to perform a cancer operation.“We have seen a lot of snow overnight, blizzards and drifting,” said Clare Nasir, a meteorologist at the weather services, known as the Met Office. “Communities have been cut off and roads have been blocked.”London’s busiest railway station, Waterloo, showed more than half of trains cancelled or delay at the height of rush hour.Southern Railways said an 8 foot icicle in a tunnel was delaying services.Wholesale gas prices soared to their highest in at least 10 years yesterday and power network regular, the National Grid, warned of a deficit in the market and sought to buy gas from market players to unblock local bottlenecks.The cold spell, dubbed the “the Beast from the East”, has been caused by a jump in temperatures high over the Arctic which has weakened the jet stream that brings warm air in from the Atlantic to Ireland and Britain.Britain’s two busiest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, both said that flights would be cancelled. Police in Lincolnshire said all roads were impassable.More than 150 flights were cancelled at Dublin airport.The Met Office warned that freezing rain was likely across southern England as Storm Emma pushes northwards from Portugal and France, adding that it looked set to be the coldest spell in Britain since 1991.“Storm Emma is going to push up from the south and that will bring heavy snow to parts of the southwest of England in particular where we are likely to see major disruption,” Alex Burkill, a meteorologist at Britain’s weather service said.In Scotland, schools in the central region were closed for the third day and some offices and shops were also shut, with widespread road closures and only handful of train and bus services running.The Scottish Conservative Party cancelled its conference due to take place in Aberdeen today and tomorrow. Both Edinburgh and Glasgow airports were closed.Some places in southern Scotland were under such heavy of snow, it affected funeral services in Hawick.Keep cooking, Brits told as gas supply fears growHouseholds were told to “carry on cooking” by the government yesterday, as a warning of a gas supply deficit spooked the market and raised questions over the country’s gas policy.A nationwide cold snap with temperatures as low as minus 10.3 degrees Celsius and widespread snow has led to a sharp increase in gas demand which is used to heat as much as 80% of homes and also for cooking. Prices for within-day gas delivery have more than quadrupled since the start of the week to 300 pence per therm yesterday, the highest in at least 10 years. Energy Minister Claire Perry said there would be no disruption to domestic supplies and encouraged Britons to “carrying on using your gas heating and cooking meals as normal”. National Grid, which maintains the country’s gas and electricity systems, also moved to calm the country and said its early morning alert over a potential gas deficit was a part of its “tool kit” to secure supplies from the market.