An online news editor kept readers up to date with chaotic travel conditions despite being stranded in his car for almost ten hours.

Leon Watson, news editor of KentOnline, found himself trapped on the A2 in Kent along with thousands of other motorists after he set off for home from the Medway newsroom.

But undaunted by the prospect of spending a night in the car, he logged onto the site’s Twitter feed and used it to post live updates of the weather conditions.

And after posting on his epic journey for the duration of his ordeal, he found plenty of other local people sharing their own stories via the social networking site.

Said Leon: “I was stuck for nine-and-a-half hours in my car with only a book about London oddities, George Galloway on the radio and Twitter to keep me company.

“Apart from Twitter, none of those really helped. So, I got tweeting and was pleased to see plenty of other people around in exactly the same plight.

“Outside, there was a good atmosphere – some truckers were having a snowball fight and a lady came to admire my A2 snowman made with a mince pie hat. Very festive.

“And on Twitter too people were keeping their chin-up in the awful conditions. I’ve just woken up and seen loads of kind messages left by our followers – 99 per cent of whom don’t know me from Adam of course. That was very nice.”

Leon wasn’t the only member of the KM Group’s staff to find himself stranded. Gravesend and Dartford Messenger reporter Simon Tulett made it home through the snow at midnight, while Danny Boyle from the Medway Messenger had the longest journey of all at 11 hours.

Editorial director Ian Carter said: “This was a great effort by everyone at the KM – staff were determined the weather would not disrupt production of our newspapers whilst our online and on-air output really came into its own.

“All the people who faced horrendous journeys on Tuesday night were back on duty the following day.”