UK weather latest updates: RAF mobilised to help hospitals and vulnerable people amid freezing conditions as gas shortage warning issued
Britain faces another day of sub-zero temperatures, icy blasts and blizzard-like conditions
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Hundreds of drivers spent the night in their cars amid bitterly cold temperatures after becoming stranded on roads as heavy snow continues to cripple the UK's transport system.
Schools around the country were to be closed on Thursday as Britain braced for another day of sub-zero temperatures, icy blasts and "blizzard-like" conditions.
Many roads have been left impassable by drifts of snow, while trains and flights have also been hit by delays and cancellations as Storm Emma rolls in from the Atlantic and meets the chilly Siberian air of the so-called "Beast from the East".
Follow for live updates as the country faces another day of disruption.
Temperatures plunged to lows of -6C overnight, and the Met Office warned it could feel as cold as -11C during the day as winds continue to strengthen.
An amber warning for snow in place across much of Scotland has been extended from 6pm tonight until 10am tomorrow.
It comes after red severe weather warning in place in central Scotland expired at 10am today.
Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said the advice remained that people should not travel unless "absolutely essential".
"If you do travel there will be disruption, you may possibly get stranded," he added.
An estimated 1,000 vehicles were stuck on the M80 last night and road crews were still working to free 300 this morning.
Drivers reported being stranded for up to 13 hours, with some spending the night in their cars, and others abandoning their vehicles on the motorway.
Around 50 vehicles have been abandoned on the motorway, causing additional difficulties for authorities working to reopen the road, said Mr Yousaf.
Hospital staff sleep overnight in wards
NHS staff slept overnight in wards to ensure patient services could continue at one hospital stricken by snow.
Medics stayed through the night at Sunderland Royal Hospital, while others who were brought in by 4x4 volunteer drivers will do so on Thursday night into Friday.
More than 21,000 have liked a post by City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust's Facebook praising the efforts of its "amazing staff". The page has been flooded messages of gratitude.
One person wrote: "What dedication! The NHS wouldn't run without people like you all."
Paediatric nurse Lisa Gerrett, 38, from Chester-le-Street, County Durham, was brought in to work by a volunteer driver in a 4x4 and will stay over at the hospital tonight so she can work on Friday.
The mother-of-four said: "I am on shift today and tomorrow and even if I could get home tonight, I would still have to manage to get in again in the morning, and I'd be relying on another 4x4 driver.
"If I stay, it means the driver can collect other nurses. It also means I can cover for night staff who cannot get in, if necessary."
Mrs Gerrett said there had been a lot of praise for staff.
"The NHS has been slated for different things over the years, so the fact that the public has recognised this is great," she said. "It makes it all worthwhile."
The trust's Facebook post showed beds made up for staff, with toiletries ready for them.
A hospital spokeswoman said: "It has been a massive team effort to make sure there is minimal disruption.
"The camaraderie shown has been pretty amazing."
Some drivers have now been stranded on the M80 motorway in Scotland for more than 18 hours:
The Scottish Conservatives conference in Aberdeen has fallen victim to the weather.
The annual conference - at which Prime Minister Theresa May was due to speak - was due to get under way this evening with a number of fringe events, but has been put back to Friday lunchtime over safety fears.
The cancellation was announced after an amber weather warning for snow in place across much of the country was extended from 6pm today until 10am tomorrow.
'If we don't act, people could die'
Dozens of outreach workers have stepped up efforts bring vulnerable rough sleepers in from the cold as London experiences its longest period of freezing weather for seven years.
Around 500 extra beds in shelters, hostels and churches have been made available in the capital through councils, charities, faith and community groups after a Swep (Severe Weather Emergency Protocol) plan was triggered.
In response to the bitter conditions, St Mungo's homeless charity and the City of London have opened a new emergency shelter - in the Guild Church of Saint Mary Aldermary.
It took in seven people on its first night as temperatures dipped to -3C in the capital's snow-blanketed centre last night.
One of them said he was "cold but relieved that someone was there, that someone actually cared" after St Mungo's workers approached him.
Sam, who has been sleeping rough for five days, was found just before midnight on Wednesday in an underpass next to a London Underground station.
He had no sleeping bag or blanket, and would have spent the whole night with nothing but the clothes he was wearing if the outreach team had not taken him to a shelter.
Asked how he had managed the cold, he told Press Association: "I've been walking around, but I find that I've got blisters on the bottom of my feet. I've been limping the past few days, it's not been good at all.
"I just want to get back on track."
He said he felt "very, very grateful" to have been offered shelter.
Kathleen Sims, the charity's rough sleepers service development manager, said Sam had been forced on to the streets after fleeing "squalid conditions in the outskirts of London where he was being made to work for little to no money".
Sam told her he had gone to another local authority earlier in the day and had been given a piece of paper to return the next day, which gave no details of any day centres or how he could refer himself.
She said: "It's not acceptable, but I think that some local authorities are overwhelmed and they don't know how to help everybody.
"It wasn't the City of London he presented to, it was an outer-London borough, and I think this is how people get disillusioned and this is how people don't trust services, because if you're passed from pillar to post and you're given pieces of paper and you're expected when you're hungry, cold, when you've got nothing - he had not a single item with him other than the clothes he was standing up in, not even a sleeping bag - how is he expected to move around, attend appointments and articulate himself? He's not.
"And five days can quickly turn into five weeks, which can quickly turn into five months. And that's the issue that we're facing."
Petra Salva, the charity's director of rough sleeper services, said deaths on the streets over the bitterly cold snap were "a horrific possibility".
She said: "If we don't act, then people could die and ... we don't know yet what the consequences of this prolonged cold weather has been."
A St David's Day debate has been cancelled so Welsh MPs can travel safely back to their constituencies before weather conditions worsen.
The general debate on Welsh affairs, to mark the feast day of the country's patron saint, was due to be held in the Commons this afternoon.
But Labour's Ian Mearns, MP for Gateshead, announced it had been postponed to allow Welsh members to travel home safely, with heavy snow predicted to lead to public transport cancellations.
The Met Office escalated a heavy snow weather warning for south Wales to red - its highest level - meaning "widespread damage, travel and power disruption and risk to life is likely" from 3pm.
During Business Questions, he said: "I'm afraid to say that the Beast from the East has taken a number of victims and there are no trains currently crossing the border on either the East Coast or the West Coast mainline to Scotland.
"But I'm afraid to say that when the Beast from the East meets Stormageddon Emma it then takes further victims and in fact one of those victims is the business of this House."
A woman has given birth on the A66 assisted by her partner amid wild conditions, the North East Ambulance Service said.
He helped deliver the baby and they were then taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital.
The ambulance service sent a double-crewed ambulance to the scene at around 9.10am, and a Great North Air Ambulance land crew also attended.
Nearly 600 flights cancelled
At least 583 flights have been cancelled at UK airports so far today. Many others have been cut elsewhere in Europe as heavy snowfall and icy winds wreak havoc with travel across the continent.
Among the airports with the most cancellations, according to Flightradar, are:
Dublin: 194
Heathrow: 157
Edinburgh: 129
Glasgow: 105
Geneva: 96
Gatwick: 77
Amsterdam: 69
London City: 67
Bristol: 48
Charles de Gaulle (Paris): 41
Snow at Leeds-Bradford airport
Van driver dies in crash
A 46-year-old man has died after a collision involving a lorry and a van on the A34 southbound this morning, Hampshire Police has said.
The van driver, from Southampton, was pronounced dead at the scene near Tot Hill services, Newbury, while his front seat passenger suffered "life-changing" injuries. The lorry driver was uninjured by the crash at 7.18am.
A second collision minutes later on the northbound side of the road involving two lorries and a car left one driver with "serious life-changing injuries", the force said.
The road is likely to remain closed until this evening due to "extensive damage to the barriers and their location", it added.
The fatal collision has caused several miles of tailbacks on the motorway as temperatures plummeted well below freezing.
Sergeant Barry Long, from the force's Joint Roads Policing Unit, said: “We would like to thank everyone for their patience while we deal with this incident, in what are particularly difficult conditions, with temperatures as low as -7C.
“Our thoughts are with the loved ones of the deceased as this time.
He added: “We have been working hard with our colleagues in the emergency services and highways to ensure those stuck in traffic get away safely and that the road is reopened as quickly as possible.
“All those who were caught up in the incident have now been able to drive away from the scene."
Glasgow Airport is to remain closed for the rest of the day.
A spokesman for the airport said: "A severe amber warning advising against all but essential travel has been issued by the Met Office and will remain in place until tomorrow morning.
"In light of this and the impact it is having on passengers and staff, including airline staff, travelling to and from the airport we will remain closed for the rest of the day.
"This decision has been taken with safety of passengers and staff in mind."
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