Commuters have been urged to leave work immediately to catch a train home or be stuck in snow before 90mph Storm Emma and the 'Beast from the East' hit Britain with a final blast of blizzards, ice and flooding.
Thousands of drivers and train passengers were left stranded overnight as extreme weather continued to wreak havoc today with roads brought to a standstill by blizzards - before black ice causes further chaos tomorrow.
Southern Rail, which runs services to Sussex, urged passengers to complete their journey before 3pm - while London Waterloo (top left) will close at 8pm tonight as services on South Western Railway wind down from 6pm. Hospitals have cancelled operations and doctors are battling to visit vulnerable patients as the NHS struggles to deal with the fallout from the conditions, while ambulance services are begging the public to help with their 4x4s. Seven flood warning have been issued across the South West and North East telling people to take 'immediate action'. Also pictured: Snow in Notting Hill, West London (bottom left), and in the City of London
The Met Office has issued six separate weather warnings covering almost the entire country today - two amber for 'be prepared' and four yellow for 'be aware' - and further alerts are in place until the end of Monday night.
Snow depths reached half a metre (1ft 8in) in Drumalbin, Lanarkshire and St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. Around 40cm (1ft 4in) of snow was measured in Bishopton, Renfrewshire and Spadeadam, Cumbria.
Passengers were stranded overnight on the 5.30pm South Western Railway service from London Waterloo to Poole in Dorset last night at Brockenhurst in the New Forest on a train that allegedly had no heating.
Hampshire Police said it had called in the military to help evacuate people from the A31, while Avon and Somerset Constabulary said about 100 vehicles had become stuck on the A303 at Ilminster.
In Greater Manchester, hundreds of drivers spent the night stuck on the M62, with police warning wind speeds had reached 90mph over the Rakewood Viaduct, between junctions 21 and 22.Dave Webb, 37, from Wakefield, told how he had been on the motorway for ten hours.
'We came to a halt at about 5.30pm last night and have been here since,' he said. 'There hasn't been any snow since about 6.30pm but the wind is pretty strong and gusting.'
Via - Dailymail
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