Airports Close Again to Clear Snow
Heavy snowfalls have grounded planes at both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports again today.
Edinburgh struggled throughout last week to keep the airport open for more than a few hours at a time due to the heavy snowfall. The airport opened on Friday for a full day and was open through the weekend although weather conditions around Europe and the Spanish air traffic dispute caused some flight cancellations.
"We're open. Edinburgh has forecasts of snow sometime this morning, check with your airline re any delays," Edinburgh Airport tweeted at 7am today.
Then the snow started falling.
By 10am the airport was closed again: "Edinburgh Airport is closed until 14:00, with further update at 12:00."
That turned out to be an optimistic forecast. Deteriorating weather conditions meant that the Airport did not re-open until 6pm.
While the East Coast has borne the brunt of the snow storm, Glasgow Airport has also had to close "for essential snow clearing operations."
The airport was open again early this afternoon.
Caught by surprise...again
Meanwhile, on the roads and railways it was a familiar story of disruption and gridlock. The situation was aggravated by a general sense that the worst was over, after slightly milder weather over the weekend.
The Forth Road bridge had to close its Southbound lane due to a jack-knifed lorry in the early afternoon. Police started turning back southbound traffic on the M90 after it became gridlocked.
Motorists on the M8 reported that the average speed had reduced to 1 mile an hour, with some stopping to make snow men on the side of the road. Many complained that there had been no sign of police or gritting machines after several hours.
In the city, Lothian Buses stopped all its services as snow gathered on the roads.
"Unfortunately due to the severity of the bad weather, there will be an interruption to all of our services. We hope to restore services soon," it tweeted around 12.30pm. The bus company started reintroducing services a few hours later, and with the snowfall having allayed by the evening, routes were gradually being restored.
Don't leave home without one
Police have been asking motorists to avoid unnecessary journeys.
'If people have to drive, then we advise that they make sure their car is fit for travel and well equipped for the weather," said a spokesman for Lothian and Borders.
'In addition to warm clothing, people should also make sure that they have a shovel in their vehicle so that they can dig their way out of the snow if they become stuck."
Edinburgh trains, which had been straining due to the freezing weather, also continue to experience delays and cancellations to services, particurlarly services to the North of Scotland.
Schools and nurseries
The Scottish government put out a press release this morning saying 90 per cent of Scotland's schools are expected to open today. However, as weather and road conditions deteriorated, local schools were advising parents that they may want to pick up children early from school. Edinburgh City Council said it is monitoring the situation.
As schools, businesses, and even shops starting shutting down, city centre roads became gridlocked, drawing out even very short journeys.
"Treacherous conditions" tonight
The skies may be clear now, but the deep freeze has set in with temperatures forecast to drop to -6C tonight. As snow turns to ice, people are being advised to travel carefully.
Snow and ice is forecast for later this week.
It would appear that Edinburgh Council had missed the warning about heavy snow this morning as the gritters did not seem to have been sent out overnight. The result was that traffic had enormous problems in coping with the heavy early snow on the capital. I went out at 8.45am to try to get to Berwick on Tweed by train and the snow had just started. The roads at that time were passable, however by the time I returned at 0945am traffic was nose to tail on Queen Street with many cars sliding all over the road on snow which had been polished to smooth ice. Many cars trying to get up the hills towards George Street from a line below Queen Street were finding it impossible and traffic was backing up all over the network.
Some buses were not operating and people coming into town were literally taking hours to complete a journey which would normally have taken a quarter or an eigth of that time - at Waverley Station I heard many tales of extremely slow journeys to the station, so if you do not need to travel then the advice is DON'T!
My train to Berwick (and going on to London) at 9.30am was cancelled and as the next two trains went from "On Time" to being "Delayed" I abandoned the trip - many more were doing the very same.
In George Street having helped get a stuck mororist going again I found the couple had just come up from the Borders before the snow had started, but they were now booking into an hotel to stay the night as the roads back were said to be extremely treacherous.
It is now 2.30pm and the snow has just stopped falling. With many of the Edinburgh side streets still not having ben cleared the advice is to stay clear of the capital and do not use your car if you can avoid it.
We saw this "weather event" coming weeks in advance (I mentioned it my Christmas shows preview) and even after we had a whole week of it and knew how unpredictable it is, and the knock-on effects of the bad weather, we can't come up with a plan whereby families aren't stranded out in the middle of the motorway in freezing conditions for hours on end.
Gordon Mackenzie, convenor on the council's Transport Infrastructure and Environment Committee, was asked on the radio what we could do about clearing the roads. "You could prey a lot, but I don't think you could do a lot more than that," he said. He might have been joking, but the response does belie a general lack of planning and imagination in dealing with the situation.
Walking up Charlotte Street I witnessed a large removal lorry having to be dug out by the co-driver and three police men while a snow plough cleared the path ahead. Eventually the lorry crawled up the hill not before a tailback had been built along the whole of Queen Street. Buses have also reduced their routes because of the new snow.
Forecast is grim for tomorrow with temperatures not set to go above freezing.
Even Billy Bragg has been forced to cancel his gig at the Arches in Glasgow tonight - he was stuck on the M74 heading North (a few miles south of Glasgow) as it was getting dark. Heard him on the radio saying he'd stopped at Gretna to get blankets and he was ready to spend the night in his van. He said the only time he's cancelled before was because he lost his voice. He set off assuming that the main arterial road North would be open, but got stuck in gridlock 20 miles from his destination.