Fresh fog warning for Britain sparks misery for commuters with flights and trains axed
Published: | Updated:
Thick fog descended across Britain and is set to cling on well into the morning – sparking fresh travel chaos for commuters.
A yellow weather warning for fog, which stretches from York to Bath and covers most of the South East and eastern England, is in place until 11am.
The Met Office warned of difficult travel conditions on Monday morning.
Visibility could be down to 50m or less in some places, with delays to bus and train services possible and a chance of flight cancellations.
Yesterday, a woman died and four were injured following a car crash in foggy conditions.
The collision between two BMWs took place between Warmington and Elton on the A605 at around 1.30am.
A Kia Ceed then smashed into the stationary BMW after the initial smash.
On Saturday, a stretch of the M20 in Kent was shut, and two people were seriously injured, after more than 30 vehicles were involved in a crash in thick fog.
The Met Office warned of difficult travel conditions on Monday morning
Thick fog has descended across Britain and is set to cling on well into the morning – sparking fresh travel chaos for commuters
On Saturday, a stretch of the M20 in Kent was shut, and two people were seriously injured, after more than 30 vehicles were involved in a crash in thick fog
Drivers were this morning urged to use fog lights when visibility drops below 100m.
Meanwhile, the poor visibility this morning caused disruption at London's airports – with several flights from Heathrow and London City airports cancelled this morning.
By 6.30am, seven flights from Heathrow and three from London City were called off.
Heathrow has advised anyone driving to the airport to allow extra time for their journey because 'overnight fog has affected visibility on roads' in the area.
'We advise passengers to check with their airline before leaving home and to drive with care,' it said on X.
Niamh Murray, Met Office operational meteorologist, said current weather conditions are the 'perfect recipe' for fog.
'With autumn and winter and getting fog during this time of year, we get much longer nights, and that allows temperatures to fall away,' she said.
'We get a longer period of cooling and also the temperatures are much lower, so they're much closer to the temperature that we need for the air to become saturated and therefore form fog.
'Another thing that we need to form fog is quite light winds, not absolutely no winds.
'We just have the perfect recipe at the moment: light winds, clear skies, long nights, to allow that fog to develop. And particularly if we see the negative numbers, it can be quite stubborn to clear the next day.'
The Met Office added that the fog could be seen outside the warning area but could be 'just not quite as dense or as impactful'.
AA president Edmund King previously said: 'Fog can transform a familiar road in a matter of minutes, so drivers need to be prepared to adapt their speed and leave more room between themselves and the vehicle ahead.
'One of the biggest mistakes is simply following the rear lights of the car in front. It can give you a false sense of security and means you may be travelling too close to react safely if that vehicle suddenly stops.
'Ultimately, there's no prize for arriving a few minutes early. Give yourself extra time, slow down and drive to what you can actually see ahead.'
Meanwhile, travel chaos hit the capital's train network as an Elizabeth line station closed during rush hour.
An escalator fault meant Canary Wharf station shut – as hundreds of thousands of commuters return to work on Monday morning.
A trackside fire at Hanger Lane also temporarily closed part of the Central line.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.