Winter snow arrived earlier than normal, with the first flakes falling in late November in the year 2010, and forecasters spoke of worse to come.
Excited children may have relished the thought of a white Christmas – and they later got their wish – but it was to be one of the earliest winter snows seen in 17 years. Heavy snowfalls followed in Hull, the East Riding and beyond; then many places continued to stay white over for weeks, forcing school closures and prompting fears about hospital admissions from falls on icy paths and warnings from charities about care of the elderly.
Council gritting teams worked flat-out to help prevent roads becoming ice rinks, with extra tonnes of salt being brought in because of quickly depleting stocks. During this weather event most parts of the UK experienced snow at some time from November into December.
As well as disruption due to the amounts of snow, some very cold temperatures were experienced too. On the morning of December 3, for example, a minimum of -19.0°C was recorded at RAF Topcliffe in North Yorkshire and at RAF Leeming it was -17.9°C, said the Met Office.
There were water supply problems due to burst pipes, some roads were blocked by snow and some airports closed. The cold spell was estimated to cost the UK economy £1.6bn, according to Office for National Statistics figures, with retailers hit by lost sales in the usually busy run-up to Christmas and supermarket shelves looked decidedly empty when deliveries failed to get through and people resorted to panic-buying.
Our gallery below presents a mixed picture of that time, recording the negative impacts the snow and ice were creating as well as some pretty scenes painted of that wintry world of 2010.