Edinburgh snow conditions - Will I get home?!

[StiflerMR2]

Hey all,

I have a flight booked from Birmingham to Edinburgh on Friday evening.

1st question: I heard Edi Airport was closed today, is that correct, is there any mention of it opening again?

2nd question: I'll need to get back to Dundee from Edinburgh, what are the main road conditions like up there at the moment, will it give me problems?

Cheers for any and all replies.

-Mark (stuck in Birmingham where there is only about 1cm of snow and people are panicing.........)

[Lazydonkey]

Right now the conditions seem to be going from "fine" to "closed" pretty quickly so i'm afraid you'll have to wait and see what happens on the day.

The main roads are getting better all the time, so my guess is, if the airport is open you'll be fine. Anyones guess just now.

[Doc883]

Edinburgh Airport was shut for a good part of today but did eventually re-open. Roads have been the same with major problems on the M90 in Fife and also closed at one point at the Friarton Bridge. It's impossible to predict what will happen come Friday but prepare yourself for the inevitable delays.

[Edin430]

All of my London flights have been cancelled...

Got a first class ticket on Virgin to Birmingham booked for the 13th and cost half the price of the air fair - that's what I would go for if I were you!

Also I guess you are on Flybe and their planes don't handle snow as well as the bigger airlines!

[gorrie]

EDI airport opened up for a short while today. A few planes went over my house on the usual approach.. but not many. Best to just keep an eye on that situation.
Main roads are OK... Whilst we can't get out of our street, my wife got picked up on the main road & went from Livi to Rosyth today & said it was OK on the Motorways/A roads etc.

[r055]

i know it doesnt fill you with confidence, but the weather reports are that it will be getting 'mild' from Thursday onwards - so hopefully you'll be ok.

[campbell]

It seems to be increasingly hard to get reliable time-based information these days - I think our "information age" is, ironically, swamping the usual channels to the extent they don't know what to publish.

A "text" was received by the BBC R Scotland team yesterday evening rush-hour, advising of problems between M90 J4 Bannockburn and J2 Philipstoun. Now, there are about 3 inter-related errors in that "report" which make it totally useless at best and misleading at worst:

M90 J4 is not Bannockburn. It's Kelty.

M90 J2 is not Philipstoun. It's Rosyth(ish).

Bannockburn is not in Fife. It's near Stirling.

M9 J4 is not even Bannockburn. It's Lathallan, to the west of Linlithgow.

Happily, J2 of the M9 is indeed Philipstoun.

So what is a frantic motorist to believe here???

I'm hearing weather forecasts saying "cold into next week".

I'm hearing the Police still saying "only travel if absolutely essential".

The A9 from Dunblane to Perth has been open and shut several times in 2-3 days.

The M90 has been a mess a couple of times due to accidents I think. Let's not get into the M8. Yet.

Edin airport has apparently been open and shut a couple of times in the last few days.

If it were me, I'd be considering avoiding the m-way if the snow continues, as once trapped in a queue there, you have nowhere to go.

I negotiated my way from Aberdeen to Edinburgh back in a horrific winter in early 1993 and only managed it by following the coast road from Stonehaven to Dundee (as some did en route back from SE Awards at the weekend). It was signed as "closed" but I was desperate...the police were stopping people using the A90 (so it was genuinely "closed") but they weren't monitoring people joining the A92 south-bound so I went for it.

Just got to keep the radio on for traffic "reports", your wits about you, and have a map ready!

[StiflerMR2]

Think i'll make fall back arrangements to stay in Birmingham just in case the worst comes to the worst.

Did a quick look and the cheapest train return for me works out at £142 for a combined travel time of 13hrs......

I'm only supposed to be up for Friday and Sat evening and coming back down on Sunday!

Oh well, thanks for all the info chaps, it's much appreciated!

[campbell]

Oh well, thanks for all the info chaps, it's much appreciated!

Remember it'll change really fast - one tip, the BBC Scotland weather forecast is produced by the Scotland based team so is generally more reliable than the generalised UK one.

[simon]

i know it doesnt fill you with confidence, but the weather reports are that it will be getting 'mild' from Thursday onwards - so hopefully you'll be ok.

Mild where?
Not where he's heading according to met check
http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/7da ... ode=dundee

[r055]

i know it doesnt fill you with confidence, but the weather reports are that it will be getting 'mild' from Thursday onwards - so hopefully you'll be ok.

Mild where?
Not where he's heading according to met check
http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/7da ... ode=dundee

Wrong choice of words there... according to the sliding scale for late thursday/Friday on the following site, it looks near-tropical!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/10209

R

[Andy A]

BLACK ICE
ON THE A92 at 5pm this evening between Kirkcaldy an Lochgelly

Andy

[Stewart]

I use the Traffic Scotland LIVE EYE VIEWS. Pretty reliable source of up to date information but some cameras are frequently down.

Unless you desperately need to come back to Scotland this weekend, I would just decide now to stay and forget about it. I was due to take the 17:50 flight from EDI to Bristol on Monday and spent most of the day monitoring the web and weather trying decide whether to head for the airport or not. Not very productive. In the end I headed for the airport mid afternoon but decided to about turn after 5 miles as it just seemed a stupid idea. Thankfully I was proven right as the flight was cancelled. Could of saved a load of hassle if I had just made the decision earlier in the day.

[StiflerMR2]

Decided to go and visit a friend in Basingstoke instead, the flight back up was only £50 so it's not the end of the world

It better clear up by the 24th or swmbo will not be happy if I'm stuck in brum over Xmas!

Thanks for all the comments guys, it was a big help

[campbell]

Oh I think we can get you home in time for Christmas...but start walking soon!

Definitely worth looking at a train. An advance booking will be peanuts if you get your skates on now. Not so around 23rd Dec, natch