A blast of cold weather heading in from the east saw UK temperatures plunge as low as -15°C and heavy snow to fall over the Midlands and UK in late February.
A static area of high pressure from over Scandinavia pushed the increasingly cold air from the continent towards Britain and Ireland, causing havoc and major disruptions.
These disruptions included a multiple-vehicle collision of the M6 near Junction 7 for Great Barr that closed off the area for multiple hours. Hundreds of school closures also occurred and there were severe delays to trains across the West Midlands along with icy, unsafe roads.
The so-called “Beast from the East” meant that amber and yellow Met Office warnings were in place for most of the UK, with areas such as Suffolk and Kent being the most affected due to seeing up to 10cm of snow.
This cold weather was felt across Europe and has been described as one of the coldest winters of recent years.
