Snow is being forecast for almost every part of the country, with up to two weeks of freezing temperatures to follow. The Met Office has warned of the potential for “power cuts will occur and other services, such as mobile phone coverage, may be affected”.
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Yellow weather warnings are in place for much of UK at points over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with warnings persisting in Scotland into next week. Southern areas are likely to escape the worst of the snow and see more rain, but parts of Wales could see 20-30cm of snow.
The Met Office added that some rural communities could also become cut off due to snow on the surrounding roads, reports the Mirror. There is also a chance of travel delays on roads, with vehicles and passengers being left stranded. Rail and air travel are also at risk, with a chance of cancellations or delays.
The UK has already had its first taste of winter, when widespread disruption hit parts of the country back in November 2024. More than 200 schools closed their doors, road and rail delays caused congestion, and ice made for hazardous journeys.
It will be far from the worst that some Britons have lived through. The infamous deep freeze of 1962/’63 lives long in the memory of those who were alive to see it, with snow and ice remaining on the ground from the Christmas period up until mid-March.
It was the coldest recorded winter for hundreds of years, with the snow measured in metres rather than centimetres in the worst-affected places.
The “Big Snow” of January 1982 came in the middle of a cold snap running from the December of the previous year. In some places, there was a 36-hour blizzard, burying cars and submerging front doors.
More recently, the winter of 2010/’11 saw the coldest winter on Met Office records, with an average temperature of -1 degrees. Two rounds of snowy and icy weather brought chaos to the north of England and Scotland.
February 2018 gave us the “Beast from the East”, capping off a fairly mild winter with an outbreak of cold and ice. Many schools closed for several days, and the thaw came with its own problems, as burst pipes and flooding hit homes across the country.
Have your say! What’s the worst winter you’ve lived through? How did you cope? Comment below, and join in on the conversation.