4Th April 2000

[MAF]

Severe weather has forced the closure of one of Britain's main airports, Luton, near London, as blizzards and flooding have caused widespread chaos.

More than two weeks into British Summer Time, much of the country has been experiencing its coldest April day on record.

Large swathes of countryside were blanketed in snow, bringing traffic to a standstill and paralysing transport systems.

Planes diverted

Luton Airport was closed for more than 10 hours during the night as snow covered the runway. It reopened at 0800 BST (0700 GMT) this morning.

About 20 planes were diverted to Birmingham and Stansted instead.

One of the worst-affected areas was the Pennines, with a "white-out" blocking the A57 Snake Pass from Glossop in Derbyshire to Sheffield.

The AA rescue service said there had been dozens of accidents across the UK.

Motorways around Birmingham were said to be particularly hazardous as snow hardened into icy patches.

Flooding

Heavy rain has also been a major problem, sweeping across parts of the south and causing flooding from Cambridgeshire to Somerset.

Floods reached up to two feet (0.61 metres) in several homes, and amber flood warnings are in place across much of the country.

In Somerset, a nurse in her 20s suffered hypothermia when most of her car was submerged in floodwater.

She was forced to stand up with her head through the sunroof and call for help on her mobile phone.

Sheep deaths

The snow also brought bad news for sheep farmers. Thousands of newborn lambs have been frozen to death in snowstorms. More sheep were smothered as gale-force winds blew snow into drifts up to five feet (1.52 metres) deep.

"The biggest factor is starvation due to cold for those lambs who are newly born or in the first week of life," said Peter Allen of the National Farmers' Union.

"Farmers can expect fairly heavy losses."

In Devon, winds reached up to 65 mph (105 km/h), forcing motorists to abandon their cars on Dartmoor.

The blast of icy weather comes just a month after weather meteorologists pronounced this winter the sunniest this century, with a daily average in England and Wales of two-and-a-half hours of sunshine a day.

The BBC Weather Centre says that the bitter weather is not set to last, however.

Forecasters are predicting more settled conditions from tomorrow, with some sunny spells, although conditions will remain cold.

Courtesy BBC News

Edited April 4, 2010 by MAF

[damianslaw]

I don't remember much if any low level snow around here during the 4th April 2000, but I do remember walking the lakeland fells and there being a general 6 inch cover above about 600m.

A bit of sensationalist journalism I say, probably was a cold day but near record cold, not sure think there will have been colder days, April 1989, 1986 and 1981 probably delivered colder days, and quite possibly 6th April 2008.

[AderynCoch]

Remember that well. Falling snow here for most of the day, though no stickage.

[Thundery wintry showers]

6th April 2008 was way colder than 4 April 2000, taking the country as a whole.

In Cleadon an area of prolonged sleety rain persisted for most of the 3rd April 2000 before it turned showery and produced some flurries of wet snow. The 4th April had a mix of sunshine and snow/hail showers, and the temperature fell to 1.9C during one of the showers, but none of the snow accumulated on the ground.

I remember Hastings reported a snow cover at 0900 GMT on the day with a minimum of 0.1C, but a large majority of the sites in Weather Log reported no days with more than 50% cover at 0900 GMT.

[Terminal Moraine]

April 3rd 2000 was actually colder than the 4th here. The max' on the 3rd was 2.1c and that occurred during the early hours of the morning, the temperature falling slowly throughout the day as continuous snow fell. There was 5cm of lying snow by 1800 on the 3rd and just under 9cm by 0500 on the 4th. The max' on the 4th was 2.9c,still pretty chilly for early April.

The max' on April 6th 2008 was 3.8c. There was 4cm of lying snow at 0900 that day and it lasted until well into the next morning despite sunny intervals.

Edited April 7, 2010 by Terminal Moraine

[Optimus Prime]

"In Somerset, a nurse in her 20s suffered hypothermia when most of her car was submerged in floodwater.

She was forced to stand up with her head through the sunroof and call for help on her mobile phone."

Couldnt she have used her phone underwater?

[Snowyowl9]

Theres no doubt about it that was a week to remember with one of the biggest april snowfalls I`ve seen with 9inches and blizzards early on on the 4th,the 3rd was the coldest day hovering at freezing and severe gales and 6 inches of snow,biggest flood ever in shrewsbury,lanes were blocked by drifts,followed by one of the best northern light displays on the 7th after 1989.

Nothing has come close since in april.

April 1998 gave a double whammy of deep snow.

[Summer of 95]

Theres no doubt about it that was a week to remember with one of the biggest april snowfalls I`ve seen with 9inches and blizzards early on on the 4th,the 3rd was the coldest day hovering at freezing and severe gales and 6 inches of snow,biggest flood ever in shrewsbury,lanes were blocked by drifts,followed by one of the best northern light displays on the 7th after 1989.

Nothing has come close since in april.

April 1998 gave a double whammy of deep snow.

There wasn't any flooding I remember in Shrewsbury in April 2000 although it was a very wet month- and no real snow either (just a few sleety bits mixed with the rain here and there). The one with the flooding was April 1998 (not too bad in Shrewsbury but very bad in Birmingham/Warks area).

[Snowyowl9]

There wasn't any flooding I remember in Shrewsbury in April 2000 although it was a very wet month- and no real snow either (just a few sleety bits mixed with the rain here and there). The one with the flooding was April 1998 (not too bad in Shrewsbury but very bad in Birmingham/Warks area).

I can`t believe there wasn`t any snow with you in april 2000!!!

Very similar aprils 1998 and 2000 were,in the memory too.

Still they were both very wet months indeed,very snowy on hills.

[Summer of 95]

I can`t believe there wasn`t any snow with you in april 2000!!!

Very similar aprils 1998 and 2000 were,in the memory too.

Still they were both very wet months indeed,very snowy on hills.

It's that old Shrewsbury trick again- missing the snow when most other places get it

The month had a couple of days when the rain turned sleety, but there was never any real snow, even of the non-sticking variety. However driving down south in the middle of that month I did catch some settling snow, on the M4 around Swindon when it was raining in Shrewsbury. Even April 1998 only had a couple of short-lived 1-2cm covers, when around Birmingham and Manchester had several inches.