LONDON: Snow and ice forced hundreds of schools to shut in the UK and badly disrupted travel across the country and neighboring France on Monday, grounding flights in some of the coldest weather of the winter so far.
The UK’s Met Office issued fresh amber weather warnings for Monday and Tuesday for snow and ice for Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of northern England and said cold weather health alerts for all English regions would remain in place until Friday.
The disruption follows a cold snap in recent days in the UK.
Temperatures dropped to a low of -10.9C in the high hills of Shap in Cumbria, northwest England, on Sunday night.
There was then heavy snowfall in some regions, with Tomintoul, near Inverness in northeast Scotland, recording the highest amount, 52 centimeters (20 inches), as of 10:00 am (1000 GMT) on Monday.
“Overnight into Tuesday temperatures will once again fall below freezing for much of the country, with the lowest temperatures over lying snow possibly dipping to -12C,” the Met Office said.
A total of 212 schools were closed in Northern Ireland on Monday, the authorities said, with dozens of schools also shut in Scotland, Wales and northern England.
Flights were canceled at airports including Liverpool in northwest England, Aberdeen and Inverness in northeast Scotland, and Belfast in Northern Ireland.
At France’s major Paris airports of Charles de Gaulle and Orly, heavy snowfall forced airlines to reduce their flights by 15 percent.
Some 250 snowplows were on standby at the two airports, French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot told a press conference, adding there would likely be “cancelations and some delays.”
Local, regional and international railways across the UK were also affected.
In Paris, snow disrupted the bus network on Monday afternoon and roads, particularly in the northwest Normandy region as well as in the French capital, were badly affected with long tailbacks.
The Eurostar train service linking the UK to the European mainland advised passengers traveling between London and the Netherlands to postpone their journeys as services could not operate beyond Brussels due to the weather in the Netherlands.
British railway authorities meanwhile deployed snowplows in Scotland to try to clear tracks hit by heavy snow.
In Scotland, the police cautioned road users not to try to drive through closed roads.
The UK’s roadside assistance provider, the AA, said there had been a 40 percent spike in callouts compared to a typical Monday.
Belfast Zoo remained closed due to the weather conditions on Monday, while snow, ice or low temperature warnings were in place across neighboring Ireland.