Winds from Siberia put Britain into deep freeze

Bleak mid-winter: A lone figure walks in the Lammermuir Hills, East Lothian, yesterday, after Siberian winds brought snow and sent temperatures plunging across the country, with the promise of worse to come. A 26- year-old woman was killed when a car skidded on ice near Haywards Heath in West Sussex. The worst-hit areas were in south Wales, where temperatures nosedived to minus 17C with the wind-chill factor. North-east England, Humberside, Merseyside and southern Scotland all had snow, which combined with freezing winds to cause power cuts.

Photograph: Colin McPherson Report, page 2