Reuters) – Much of Britain and Ireland was blanketed in snow on Wednesday as freezing Siberian weather dubbed “the Beast from the East” disrupted the travel plans of thousands.
Hundreds of schools were closed and there were delays on roads, railways and at airports on one of the coldest days Britain has experienced at this time of the year for almost three decades.
Temperatures fell to minus 12 Celsius (10 degrees Farenheit) in some rural areas while Britain’s weather service warned of up to 40 cm of snow in higher areas of Scotland.
“It is the coldest air we have seen over the UK at this time of the year since around 1991,” Becky Mitchell, a meteorologist at Britain’s Met Office, said. “It is all tied in with the Beast from the East.”