London - Heavy fog today caused travel chaos for thousands of plane passengers in Britain as dozens of flights were cancelled and temperatures fell below -7C overnight. More than 100 flights were called off at London Heathrow Airport this morning, dozens more were cancelled at City and disruption was also seen at Gatwick and Stansted as dense freezing fog enveloped southern England. Monday morning rush hour commuters in London and the South East also faced dangerous conditions caused by icy roads and reduced visibility, after the Met Office warned that areas of dense freezing fog could hit journeys. The coldest place overnight in the UK was Katesbridge in County Down, Northern Ireland, which dropped to -7.1C, while Benson in Oxfordshire saw -6.9C and Northolt in North West London was not far behind with -6.3C. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of rail passengers suffered fresh travel misery today because of yet another strike on Southern Railway and a broken rail affecting South West Trains at Wimbledon in London. The UK minimum of -7.1C was colder than Iceland, Russia, Norway and Finland in the early hours; with Reykjavik down to just 3.6C overnight, -1.9C observed in Moscow -3.3C in Oslo and -0.9C in Helsinki. The Met Office has issued a severe weather warning for fog until 10.30am over the south coast from Exeter to Dover, which also covers cities in the South East such as London, Oxford, Canterbury and Winchester. British airports made up five of the top six most delayed airports in the world this morning. Delhi was sandwiched by Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester and City - with the latter being the most delayed airport on earth. Flights into City had an average delay of more than two hours, with 33 per cent of services delayed and 67 per cent cancelled. Heathrow meanwhile had an average inbound lag of an hour and 60 per cent of flights delayed.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was one of those hit by the disruption. The 46-year-old politician had been due to attend an engagement in London today but was delayed at Glasgow Airport.(FA)
