Saturday, December 28, 2024

Thick fog continues to disrupt flights at UK airports

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Fog has continued to cause disruption to flights at some of the UK’s busiest airports and is forecast to persist through the weekend.

The murky weather has shrouded much of the country over the past few days and shows little sign of abating yet.

In some areas, thick fog patches could reduce visibility down to just 100 metres, the Met Office said.

Multiple flights at Heathrow and Gatwick have been cancelled or delayed on Saturday, after dozens were affected on Friday.

The national weather service has not yet issued warnings for fog but said it would monitor the situation.

“It’s that time of year when people are travelling around the country a lot and there are a lot of people on the roads,” Met Office meteorologist Liam Eslick said.

“There is a lot of fog covering much of England, mainly the south-east and central England, but the rest of the country is seeing quite a bit of thick fog too.

“It will be pretty murky on Saturday morning and there will still be fog patches that will take a little longer to clear.”

Flights were delayed by up to three hours from Gatwick on Friday evening owing to poor conditions.

Eslick said the fog levels could sink a little lower on Saturday, so higher hills could be clearer.

The Met Office has advised motorists to go steady when they are driving in fog. But lingering low cloud should start to clear on Sunday, Eslick said.

Some stronger winds are forecast on Sunday, which “will pick up and turn over these cloudy and murky conditions to help clear the fog”, Eslick added.

The murky conditions of late are less likely to return in the last couple of days of the year but people should not hold out hope for much winter sunshine.

“It looks like it won’t be as dank and horrible (early next week) but it will still be wet and windy across much of the country,” Eslick said.

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