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Much of Shropshire and Mid Wales woke up to a blanket of wet snow today, with 4,000 homes and businesses left without power, schools closed and major problems on the roads.
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Up to 5ins of snow fell on high ground in the south of the county, bringing down branches, trees and power lines.
Shropshire Star weatherman John Warner said it was at least 17 years since the region had suffered such a prolonged snowfall so early in the winter.
“In many places it snowed for at least 12 hours, which is very unusual for November,” he said.
“The main problem is that the weight of the wet snow has brought down trees and power lines.
“But warmer air is now moving in from France instead of the icy blasts we had yesterday from the Low Countries and there will be a rapid thaw.”
The worst hit area was south and south east Shropshire where 4,000 people in Ludlow, Craven Arms, Bridgnorth, Leominster and north Herefordshire lost electricity from 10.40pm yesterday due to the snow.
A spokesman for power company Aquila said: “Engineers worked through the night and are continuing to work today to restore supplies.”
Nearly 500 homes in the Kinlet area lost power early today. Central Networks said engineers were working to solve the problem.
Police said they had experienced a very busy night but all roads were passable with care. Routes in Much Wenlock, Morville, Harley Bank and the Hope Valley were all affected.
The A4117 over Clee Hill between Ludlow and Bewdley was very treacherous and partly blocked by fallen branches and trees, with traffic reduced to chicane-style single lane driving to get round obstructions.
A train travelling along the Heart of Wales Line from Shrewsbury was stuck when a tree fell onto the line near Knucklas, in Powys.
Bicton Primary School, near Shrewsbury, and Springfield Infants School, in Shrewsbury, were closed because of heating problems.
In the Presteigne area, three schools were closed, affecting 177 children, due to an electricity sub-station at Kington being knocked out.
Elsewhere in the country, snow fell across a swathe of central England, with the heaviest falls in the Peak District.
Slush was blamed for a smash involving a van and two cars on the M42 in Warwickshire last night. Eight people were taken to hospital.
By Peter Johnson
12 Comments
Lord help us all if we ever get a snowfall like we used to when I was a child in the 70s and 80s. However will we cope?
it is all pathetic , SNOW hardly max 4″ gone in 5 hours, services need to get there acts together, wouldnt happen in the usa
Was this forecast? If so I must have missed it, if not folks I’d dump the computers and satellites and just get the fir cones out! Good point posted above too, are power lines thinner these days?
We have just been laughing our socks off…I used to live in Telford and I now live in Norway… Things dont stop for 1″ of snow here!!!
i want it to snow so we can slide on it
Are powerlines held up by matchsticks in this county? Amazing really, there was barely any snow lying this morning, yet the usual disruption that only england can have when a snowflake falls.
a bit of snow these days leads to school closing , office/factory staff off etc, when i was a lad people who where close enough to schools walked in the scholls never closed.
Just another example of the press trying to make something out of nothing. It was hardly misery, a little bit of snow, some of us found it quite pleasant to look out on over the hills.
this country stands still with abit of snow so make the most of it while it is here because you will never know when we are getting it next
a bit of snow and the whole country goes mad. get a grip losers
power lines go down , reason not being maintained over the years only when they go faulty , schools close teacher will do anything for a day off,in boston usa they had 2ft of snow regularly the pavements, roads alawys remained clear its called getting your act together.
I was telling my old Cypriot neighbour of 82 years that business’s had been left without power and schools had closed as a result of 12cms of snow falling in Shropshire.
He said “But Christo you told me only last week that council tax was very expensive and was going up by 5% there. Surely with all that extra money they could improve the way they deal with that problem”.
Logic or what?