Hundreds of schools are closed and many roads are blocked or treacherous as the UK experiences its first significant winter blast, with snow, blizzards, ice and freezing temperatures. Many parts of the country saw the coldest night of the season so far.
The Met Office issued eight separate yellow snow and ice warnings for Thursday, covering Devon and Cornwall, parts of Kent, the east coast, East Anglia, north-east England, south-west and north-west Wales, Northern Ireland and northern Scotland. An amber alert was also in place for the North York Moors and Yorkshire Wolds from 3am to 9pm, warning of occasional blizzards and up to 25cm of snow on hills.
In Scotland, more than 90 schools closed in Aberdeenshire. In Wales, 36 closed in Pembrokeshire, 14 in Carmarthenshire and seven in Ceredigion. About 30 schools in North Yorkshire, eight in East Yorkshire and a handful in Northumberland also shut. Roads were closed in northern England, including the A1 northbound between Morpeth and Alnwick, the A171, and many rural routes.
The AA advised drivers to slow down and allow extra time, saying stopping distances can increase tenfold on ice. In some areas, the snow was so heavy that attractions like Ryedale Folk Museum closed for the first time in a decade. Temperatures dropped to -6.6C in Oxfordshire and could fall to -10C in rural Scotland overnight on Thursday.
The Met Office reported 'thundersnow' in Aberdeenshire and off the north-east coast, with a risk of more. An amber cold health alert from the UK Health Security Agency remains in force across northern England until Saturday. Temperatures are expected to rise towards the weekend, but not to the exceptionally mild levels seen earlier this month.
