In late February and early March 2018 the UK experienced it’s most significant spell of low temperatures and snow since December 2010.
Daytime temperatures stuck widely below freezing, a strong wind blew from the east and significant accumulations of snow fell across much of the country. Dubbed by the public as “The Beast From The East”, this weather had widespread impacts on the UK.
There was severe travel disruption: roads closed and cars were stranded overnight in both Scotland and England. Rail services were cancelled and air transport was severely disrupted. Thousands of schools across England, Wales and Scotland were closed, and many areas suffered power cuts. Isolated communities and farms across the North Pennines were forced to receive supplies by helicopter.
This website explores the weather and events surrounding The Beast From The East.
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As The Beast From The East approaches we can see an increase in road transport related google searches as people begin to worry about the effect of the weather on their lives.
We can see the searches on particular roads peaked at different levels and at different times. Particular attention was paid to the M62 near Manchester, which was closed at 6pm on March 1st for 32 hours.
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The average speed and volume of traffic on motorways declined sharply on the 1st of March compared to the weeks before. That is the day after the lowest temperatures were recorded.
Motorways showed the largest reduction of speeds on the 28th of February and again on the 2nd of March.
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Motorways showed the largest reduction of traffic on the 2nd of March.
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For regional train companies, disruption is reflected by the number of cancelled train services at a given time.
The overall performance of each train company is also reflected in the RAG status, which records poor, average or good performance levels.
The graph below can be used to compare the daily pattern of cancellations for different train operating companies.
The heatmap shows how the RAG status of train companies changed during The Beast From The East.
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