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Thousands have been without power in Shetland for a second night as Britain’s infrastructure continues to struggle with sub-zero temperatures.
The Met Office has extended a yellow warning for snow and ice in northern Scotland and north-east England until Friday.
The Scottish Government announced a major emergency on Tuesday after thousands of homes were left without power due to heavy snow in Shetland on Monday evening.
About 2,800 people were still without power, and engineers described it as the worst “concentrated and explosive weather event” seen since Christmas 1995.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) was working to restore supply but it was not expected to be fully restored until the end of the week. More engineers were due to arrive in Shetland on a ferry from Aberdeen on Wednesday to help restore power.
Graeme Caddy, a spokesman for SSEN, said: “Firstly, I would like to apologize to those customers who are still without power and to reassure them that we are making every effort to reach them.”
He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland that the company had reconnected 1,000 homes on Tuesday and continued to make progress. “We’ve had 15 extra line crews on the freight ferry this morning and more by helicopter, so that will make a real difference to the recovery effort,” he said.
“This is a very concentrated and explosive weather event over Shetland which was much more severe than predicted. Local teams have said it is the worst they have seen since 1995 during the Christmas period.
Snow and ice have been blocking roads since the beginning of the week. The RAC Breakdown Service reported its busiest day on record on Monday, helping almost 12,000 drivers.
Yesterday was officially our busiest day for breakdowns on record, with almost 12,000 drivers needing help 🤯
A big thank you to all our colleagues, especially our patrols who faced the challenging weather ❄️ pic.twitter.com/10iWgyCpA8
— The RAC (@TheRAC_UK) December 13, 2022
Bremer in Aberdeenshire was the coldest place in the UK for the second consecutive night on Tuesday, recording -17.3C.
The Met Office said on Twitter: “Another cold start to this Wednesday morning with active snow, ice and gale force warnings across the UK.”
Met Office spokeswoman Becky White said: “There will be a risk of snow across the country over the next few days, but especially tonight.”
Commenting on the latest yellow warning for northern Scotland and north-east England, White said some areas could see up to 10cm of fresh snow on higher ground, while lower levels could see 1-4cm.
In Sheffield, engineers reported they had just over 100 homes left to be reconnected to gas on Tuesday evening. About 2,000 homes in the city lost supply 11 days ago when a burst water main flooded the local gas network with more than one million liters of water.
Snow and ice warnings were in place for south-west England until 10am on Wednesday. The region could see up to 10cm of snow on high ground such as Dartmoor and Exmoor.
Snow warnings were also in place for eastern England and northern parts of Northern Ireland, including Belfast, until Wednesday afternoon.
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