December Snow Continues To Dump on Edinburgh

Submitted by edg on Wed, 1 Dec '10 7.58am

Snowvember is over, but as Edinburgh enters December there is little sign of the unusually snowy weather abating.

Waking up on a freezing sixth day of this extreme weather "event", commuters discovered the kind of traffic chaos that has become part of the daily routine.

Edinburgh Airport was unable to keep the runways clear overnight with such a large volume of snow that it has been closed again.

"Edinburgh Airport has experienced extremely heavy snowfall overnight and is closed until 6pm this evening. We anticipate that the runway will be clear and open at 12 o'clock midday. Please contact your airline for further information," the airport tweeted before 7am.

By 10am the airport was advising people not to travel to the airport at all as it "is now closed for the rest of the day due to unprecedented snow levels."

Roads whiteout

Motorists are experiencing long delays on the roads with the Edinburgh City Bypass down to one lane and M8 moving very slowly.

The Forth Road Bridge is closed.

"Incident on bridge - bridge closed to all vehiclesm" the Forth Road Bridge tweeted at 6am.

At 7.50am, it followed up with the message:

"Forth Road Bridge is closed due to unprecedented snowfall - please do not travel until further notice."

It added: "Working to clear sliproads and crossovers at ends of bridge so queuing traffic can be turned around."

Buses and trains are running limited services.

Freezing cold

Temperatures are not expected to get beyond freezing.

The Met Office's severe weather warning at 8am for Edinburgh and Lothians said:

"Snow showers will continue during today, becoming heavy at times. The showers will give further snowfall accumulations of 5 to 10cm. The public are advised to take extra care and refer to Traffic Scotland for further advice on road conditions."

School Closures

With so much disruption many children will be enjoying a third snow day off school. Edinburgh City Council advised yesterday that some primary schools in Edinburgh are due to partially re-open and 4th-6th year pupils at all secondary schools should attend (1st - 3rd year should stay at home).

School staff were being asked to report to work today and if they cannot report to their usual place of work then to go to the nearest City of Edinburgh Council school.

All secondary schools will be open for 4th-6th year pupils tomorrow - all secondary pupils should bring a packed lunch. Pupils who get transport from Ratho, Kirknewton and Livingston to Balerno High School should not attend as transport is unavailable.

"I want to thank everyone for their patience. With such a lot of snow falling in such a short space of time, it's inevitably going to take some time to clear residential streets and restore other services to normal. I also want to thank those people who have been good neighbours to vulnerable people and the Council staff who have been working flat out to keep the city moving," said Councillor Robert Aldridge, Environment Leader.

Council run special schools are remaining closed with the exception of the Panmure St Ann's service, while all City of Edinburgh Council community centres are re-opening with the exception of Ratho, Roseberry Hall, Inch, Jack Kane, Bingham and Magdalene.

More updates about council services disruptions available from its web site and Forth FM.

Further information

Edinburgh Traffic updates on Twitter

Edinburgh Weather

Edinburgh Transport