MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Coldest winter in a century and snow close down Britain

Schools, roads, airports, crippled by the unexpected weather

Britain was in the grip of snow chaos as Arctic conditions forced the closure of schools, roads and airports. Some train services were also cancelled as forecasters predicted one of the coldest winters in 100 years.

Heavy snow began falling early on Tuesday in vast parts of the country, crippling transport networks in time for rush-hour.

Manchester Airport and John Lennon Airport in Liverpool were temporarily closed for several hours, while passengers at Heathrow, Gatwick, Glasgow and Leeds Bradford International all faced delayed flight departures.

Ten East Coast Main Line rail services between London and Leeds were among the train journeys which had to be axed.

On the roads, heavy snow caused a section of the A66 to be shut in both directions in Cumbria and a succession of accidents added to drivers' difficulties on many routes.

Temperatures fell as low as minus 10C across parts of England overnight, with no end in sight to the freezing weather.

Stephen Davenport, senior meteorologist at MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: “Only a major upheaval in the atmosphere will bring a return to something milder.

”Should conditions continue in a similar vein then, by March we might just be looking back at one of the coldest winters of the last 100 years”. It is predicted up to 4ins of snow will fall in parts of the UK on Tuesday, with snow possibly moving south later in the week.