Snow at airport picture by Flickr user susansimon

This half term could be a snowy one, as forecasters expect snow in the east and north east of England tonight, and in western parts of England, touching on Wales tomorrow. The cause is a -15c blast from Siberia which is to last at least until this weekend. The resulting weather could cause travel disruptions, especially to flights.

Heathrow won’t want a repeat of last week’s cancellations made in anticipation of bad weather. Around 90,000 passengers are expected to fly from the airport this weekend, one of the busiest so far due to the school holidays. An airport spokeswoman said: “We are watching the weather very closely.”

Tim Hewson, chief forecaster at the Met Office said: “Whilst there is uncertainty regarding where the heaviest and most persistent snow will fall, accumulations of up to about 10cm are possible in the worst affected regions. As a result there could be some disruption to travel.”

Passengers due to travel tomorrow and this weekend are advised to check the status of their flights with the airlines before setting off.

The Highways Agency has 500 gritters on standby to cope with any snow on the roads.

The weather warning from the Met Office has prompted Heathrow Airport to cancel 30% of its flights for this Sunday. Heavy snowfall is expected in the southeast of England this weekend, so a reduced timetable is being agreed in order to minimise disruption to passengers. Check the new schedule from 18:00hrs today, which could have further additions as the weather changes.

There is likely to be poor visibility and freezing fog from 18:00 hrs on Sunday, with as much as 15cm of snow covering the whole of the southeast.

Heathrow chief operating office Normand Boivin, said: “This decision ensures that the greatest number of passengers can fly with the minimum amount of disruption. It also means that those passengers whose flights are cancelled will know in advance, and can make alternative arrangements or rebook in relative comfort.”

Gatwick Airport is also warning of possible disruptions to schedules on Sunday, and will update on their Twitter feed (@Gatwick_Airport).

Details of flight cancellations will be published by British Airways later today, and Virgin Atlantic are offering passengers to option of  re-booking travel for next week.

Happy New Year to all our readers! Before we move on to this year’s news, here’s a round up of some of the biggest stories we covered on this blog in 2011, it certainly was an eventful year!

January started with the troubled BMI threatening to withdraw its Heathrow – Glasgow route after passenger charges at Heathrow were raised (this was confirmed a month later). Ryanair returned to Manchester with four new routes. And the political troubles in Egypt disrupted flights.

Spiraling conflict in Egypt caused complete cancellation of routes to popular holiday destinations in February. Meanwhile, Which? launched a super complaint on airline card fee charges,the cost of Qantas’ engine troubles were revealed, and airlines flying from the UK finally started to show clearer air fares.

March brought faster flight times under a deal signed by traffic controllers. But by far the biggest news of the month was the huge tsunami which hit Japan and led to re-routing of flights to avoid possible radiation risk, and advice to leave Tokyo.

A Skyscanner survey found Spain back in favour for British holidaymakers in April.

In May Belfast Airport started to charge for going for a cigarette break, and the ongoing battle between Unite and British Airways was finally settled!

More natural disasters happened in June with violent aftershocks in Christchurch, New Zealand and volcanic eruptions in Chile.

The News of the World phone-hacking scandal broke in July with airlines withdrawing their advertisements as a result.

In August research revealed the use of smartphones were ruining people’s holidays.

The Rugby World Cup was held in New Zealand in September, where Wales’ hopes were dashed.

The first biofuel passenger flight took place in October, however green campaigners claimed it wasn’t as environmentally friendly as everyone thought.

Europe announced a ban on body scanners at airports in November, but the UK decided to go against the decision.

Finally, December saw 150mph winds hit parts of Scotland, which is where we are now at the start of 2012 as tremendous winds continue to batter the UK once more.

So, what travel news is in store for 2012? Keep up to date here!

Last year Easyjet announced that they were funding research into a way of avoiding the volcanic ash cloud aviation crisis. This research is starting to bear fruit as over the past two weeks, pilot Captain Uwe Post has successfully flown over 30 hours around Mount Etna and Stromboli through clouds of ash from the smoldering volcanoes.

The tiny plane has a special piece of technology tied to its wing. It’s designed to detect how much ash and what sized particles are in the air. Typically the ash we can see is so heavy that it drops in a matter of hours, however the most dangerous particles are very difficult to detect from far enough away to avoid easily. The default decision of the understandably safety conscious civil aviation authorities is to block off all of the surrounding areas, as we saw last year with the Icelandic volcano  eruption which caused travel chaos for about a month.

So far tests are proving positive, so much so that they are able to produce accurate models of where the ash is and how thick. These tests are only carried out at a speed of 120mph, but to work commercially, the technology would have to work much faster and at higher altitudes.

If it passes its field trials and is approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency then the company will be able to sell it to other airlines, which will mean that Easyjet will be able to recoup their research costs.

Currently scientists are predicting a large eruption from Iceland’s much larger volcano Katla, which if it does erupt, will be far worse than those of Eyjafjallajökull and Grimsvotn.

Winds have been battering Scotland and part of England today. The worst of the weather has definitely been in Scotland so far with 150mph winds due to a large Atlantic storm.

The Met Office has issued a red alert, and police in Scotland have told people not to travel. There are long delays at Glasgow and Edinburgh airports as the wind speeds have made it unsafe for many aircraft to travel.

Network Rail has imposed a 50mph speed restriction on trains operating north and west of Edinburgh. The Tay Rail Bridge has also been closed. Passengers are advised not to travel north of Edinburgh for the time being as the conditions worsen.

The River Clyde has burst its banks in Glasgow, parts of buildings have fallen down as well as the city’s large Christmas decorations strewn across pavements.

The Atlantic storm is expected to cause further disruption across Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North east of England tomorrow.

The strongest winds are expected to affect central, southern and north eastern Scotland, northern parts of Northern Ireland, and North East England. The risk of snow is also likely in Western Scotland, Northern Ireland and Northwest England on Friday and Saturday for which there are also weather warnings.

The Met Office have published a selection of some of the highest winds recorded around the UK today (Thursday 8th November):

Cairngorm Summit: 165 mph

Aonach Mor: 145 mph

Tiree: 90 mph

Dunstaffnage: 86 mph

Aberdaron: 81 mph

Church Fenton: 73 mph

Glasgow, Bishopton: 71 mph

Edinburgh, Gogarbank: 69 mph

St Bees Head: 74 mph

Mumbles Head: 62 mph

The city of Dublin has put emergency plans into place following widespread flooding yesterday.

Torrential rain in Dublin caused chaos and destruction yesterday according to the Irish Independent. A month’s rainfall fell in just one day, stranding motorists and flooding homes and businesses. The city’s main shopping centre had to be closed and evacuated as the water entered.

Travel chaos ensued as flights in and out of Dublin Airport were delayed, rail services cancelled and two of the country’s motorways closed or impassable.

Meteorologists have warned there is more heavy rain on the way, however it should not be as bad. The Irish weather service has issued a severe weather warning for Ulster and east Leinster.

The UK has not escaped either with parts of south-west England, northern Ireland and Wales suffering flooding. Coastal and river areas in Cornwall, Devon, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Swansea have all now been issued with flood alerts.

Dublin airport is warning passengers to check access roads’ status before setting off to the airport, information can be found here.

“Oh no!” I hear you cry, as another Icelandic volcano, once dubbed the Gateway to Hell, is being tipped to be the next to erupt.

The Hekla volcano is close to Eyjafjoell, which caused travel chaos with its ash cloud after it erupted last year.

The Iceland Civil Protection Authority said it was closely monitoring the situation at Hekla.

Geophysicist Pall Einarsson from the University of Iceland told Iceland Review: ”The movements around Hekla have been unusual in the last two to three days, while this might not necessarily mean an immediate blast, the volcano is ready to erupt.”

However, geophysicist Ari Trausit Gudmundsson told AFP that Hekla usually erupts with both lava and ash and if the eruption is similar to those so far then it’s unlikely to cause disruption to flights.

Air travellers will be groaning at the news that another Icelandic volcano has erupted this weekend, sending a plume of smoke and ash 12 miles into the air and blocking out the sun for a time.

Grimsvoetn is Iceland’s most active volcano set at the heart of the country’s biggest glacier. The eruption started on Saturday and if it continues at the same rate the ash cloud could reach parts of Scotland and Northern England by Tuesday, progressing to France and Spain as early as Thursday. The predictions are based on the latest 5-day weather forecasts but should be viewed with caution as the prevailing air currents could change.

No disruption is expected to European or transatlantic airspace over the next 24 hours at the time of writing.

Almost exactly a year ago 34 countries shut their airspace after the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted as there were fears that fine ash particles could cause jet engines to stop. It was the largest closure since the Second World War and millions of passengers were affected.

Gunnar Gudmundsson, of Iceland’s Meteorological Office, said: “I don’t expect this will have the same effect as Eyjafjoell volcano because the ash is not as fine.”

However, he acknowledged that other countries could be affected if weather patterns change.

Einar Kjartansson, a geophysicist at Iceland’s Met Office, warned: “If the eruption lasts for a long time we could be seeing similar effects as seen with Eyjafjallajökull last year.”

The Civil Aviation Authority are more positive with a spokesperson saying: “It’s early days and we’re keeping an eye on the situation but at the moment the weather patterns are looking pretty favourable.

“It’s the kind of situation that can change very quickly but we’d be very unlucky to be affected again as the winds normally would take this kind of problem away from us.

“The only problem passengers are likely to have is if you’re going to Iceland.”

Last week around 362 twisters swept through southern America in just three days. At least 350 people have died as a result of this, the largest outbreak of tornadoes in history, according the National Weather Service.

312 tornadoes whipped across Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana and Kentucky in a single 24 hour period. The death toll continues to rise as emergency workers pick through the debris in the south-east states. A state of emergency has been declared in seven states.

According to Bloomberg, high winds and thunderstorms have caused flight disruption in key US airports, including New York and Atlanta, with more than 500 flights cancelled across the US last week.

Nearly 50 people were killed two weeks ago when storms ripped through US states from Oklahoma to North Carolina.

A new survey by Sainsbury’s Travel Insurance shows that over 13 million people are likely to make a holiday booking before the end of February because of the adverse weather conditions.

The survey shows that half  want to travel in Europe, 6% will go to America and 29% will holiday elsewhere in Britain.

£11 billion is the anticipated spend on such bookings which means spending is up 49% on last year. Sainsbury’s Travel Insurance manager Scott Gorman said: “A lot of people will be fed up with the winter snow and travel delays or cancellations they have had to endure in 2010, particularly over Christmas. This may lead to a significant increase in people intending to book a holiday to give them something to look forward to in the New Year.”

So, if you’re one of the 13 million planning on booking a holiday soon, then search for holiday villas at the main Villaseek website, or Holiday Cottages if you want to stay in the UK.