Travellers will face some chaos in the UK this week as the so called ‘Beast from the East’ heads towards Britain, bringing heavy snow and below freezing conditions.
The wild weather has already seen some rail and air services cancelled.
British Airways confirmed on its website that the inclement weather expected across parts of the UK and Europe from now until to Friday, March 2 would likely affect some of its short-haul and domestic flights.
“We recognise the uncertainty that the bad weather may be causing customers and have therefore introduced more flexible rebooking options for all customers on short-haul flights flying to/from London Heathrow or London Gatwick airports.”
British Airways.
Travellers due to fly out on a British Airway short-haul service between now and Friday (regardless of whether your flight is currently showing as operating or not) can rebook their flight to a later date and travel on dates up to including Wednesday March 21.
The UK Met Office has released a statement explaining that the very cold conditions are expected to last through the week as very cold air from northern Scandinavia and the far northwest of Russia crosses the UK and the easterly winds bring a significant wind chill making it feel several degrees colder than thermometers show.
Even without the wind chill some locations will struggle to get above 0 °C by day, with night-time temperatures ranging down to – 8 °C.
With amber #weather warnings in force for heavy snow ❄️ over the next few days, be prepared for some travel disruption #weatheraware pic.twitter.com/QqUlqXV82z
— Met Office (@metoffice) February 26, 2018
Snow showers will become much more widespread on Tuesday and Wednesday with parts of Scotland expected to see over 20 cm of lying snow.
Further snow is expected on Thursday and Friday, as Storm Emma pushes north across the continent bringing with her disruptive snow across southern UK, while gales and freezing rain could pose additional major hazards in places, increasing the risk of power cuts.
“Parts of England and Wales are likely to see their coldest spell of weather since at least 2013, and possibly since 1991.”
Met Office Chief Forecaster, Frank Saunders.
You can find out the latest by using The Met’s forecast pages and by following them on Twitter and Facebook.
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