Even the Met Office WEBSITE can’t cope with the Beast from the East!
EVEN the Met Office WEBSITE is having trouble coping with the weather after it “crashed” today following an “unprecedented demand” for information about the Beast from the East.
The Met Office's website explained it had been forced to take down some pages
The message explained: "Due to unprecedented levels of demand on our website we have temporarily replaced some of the less visited pages and unfortunately are currently unable to provide our usual weather and observation maps."
Traffic struggles through the snow in Rochester in Kent
A tweet on the Met Office’s official feed added: “We are still working to resolve ongoing issues with our iPhone app, which is crashing when loading, and our website. Please bear with us.”
Other organisations were also struggling to cope in the face of the bad weather yesterday.
Southern Rail, which announced that it was cancelling services even before the snow had actually fallen yesterday, also experienced problems with its website as commuters looked to see if their trains were running.
We are still working to resolve ongoing issues with our iphone app, which is crashing when loading, and our website. Please bear with us ^LW
— Met Office (@metoffice) August 18, 2012
A Met Office spokesperson said: "With the very severe weather that the UK is experiencing, we have been receiving very high website traffic of more than 8,000 hits per second.
“To maintain our website and vital services, we have removed some functions that are less used."
A horse and carriage braves the elements in Westminster
The operator could only run an hourly service on the London Bridge to Uckfield line today, while it also laid on additional coaches and a shuttle service between Redhill and Tonbridge.
A total of four people died in weather-related traffic accidents on Tuesday while dozens others have been caught up travel chaos across the nation as motorists struggle to cope with the adverse conditions.
And the Met Office has warned that more is in store, with Storm Emma due to hit British shores tomorrow.
Chart shows how Beast from the East will affect Europe
The freezing weather is a result of high pressure from the west merging with even higher pressure over Scandinavia.
This has resulted in a cold north to north-easterly wind all the way from Siberia.
In London, temperatures will drop below zero overnight on Thursday (February 22) before plunging to lows of -4C by March 5.