Britain is bracing for a blanket of snow, with forecasts predicting almost every region to be touched by the white stuff, followed by a fortnight of biting cold. The Met Office has signalled a stark warning, alerting that “power cuts will occur and other services, such as mobile phone coverage, may be affected”.
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A sweep of yellow weather alerts covers vast swathes of the UK throughout Friday to Sunday, with the advisories set to linger longer in Scotland into next week. While the south might dodge the heaviest snowfall, settling instead for rain, parts of Wales are gearing up for a significant dumping of 20-30cm of the white stuff.
The Met Office has also indicated that some isolated villages could find themselves secluded, with snowy roads cutting off access, as reported by the Mirror. There’s potential for travel turmoil on the roads too, potentially leaving vehicles and their occupants stranded, not to mention possible disruptions or cancellations affecting train and plane journeys.
The UK has already sampled this winter’s sting, with a throwback to last November’s chaos where more than 200 schools shut, traffic snarls jammed the roads, and treacherous ice made travel perilous.
But even with these predictions, it’s unlikely to surpass the memories of those who endured the notorious big freeze of ’62/’63, which saw snow and ice cling onto Britain from Christmas all the way into mid-March.
Britain has endured some bone-chillingly cold winters, but none more so than the legendary “Big Snow” of January 1982 which was part of an extensive cold spell starting from December 1981. It saw such extreme snowfall that measurements were in metres, not mere centimetres, especially in the hardest-hit regions.
The historic blizzard stuck around for an incredible 36 hours straight, leaving vehicles buried and residents’ front doors completely shrouded.
Have your say! What’s the worst winter you’ve lived through? How did you cope? Comment below, and join in on the conversation.
Fast forward to more recent memory, and the winter of 2010/’11 is marked as the coldest on Met Office records, with temperatures plummeting to an average of -1 degrees. During this period, the north of England and Scotland grappled with two severe spells of snow and ice that caused widespread disruption.
Then there was February 2018’s “Beast from the East”, putting a frosty exclamation point on what had been a relatively mild winter until its arrival. The cold snap resulted in numerous school closures and subsequent flooding due to burst pipes when the thaw finally set in, wreaking havoc across many UK homes.