More Snow For Britain As Mercury Plummets

Snow has blanketed large parts of the UK, following a night that saw temperatures drop as low as -11C (12.2F).

Even parts of London saw light snow falls but higher ground such as the North York Moors and Lincolnshire Wolds were told to expect up to 10cm (4in) of snow.

The Met Office has issued weather warnings for snow and ice in much of the UK and gritters have been out in force.

The Highlands village of Dalwhinnie felt the coldest temperature overnight, with the mercury plunging to -11C and Katesbridge Co Down reached -8C.

Sky News weather forecaster Isobel Lang said that while snow falls in the southern and eastern areas of the country would only be up to 4cm (1.5in), this would still cause difficult travel conditions.

Temperatures will reach a high of around 5C, with Wales, the West Midlands and northwest England seeing the best of the dry and fine weather.

Lang added: "Today will see further wintry showers across eastern and southeastern areas of England, although they will become less frequent and turn more sleety.

"During this evening and overnight there will be another widespread frost with the risk of icy patches as further wintry showers spread in across eastern England.

"Showers are unlikely to spread as far inland as last night, ice is likely to be a risk too."

Temperatures will struggle to get above 6C in parts of England, including London, according to Met Office forecaster Kirk Waite.

The trains seemed to be handling the snow well in the morning, with most running a normal service.

Signal problems meant delays for some, however, including commuters in the Bletchley area, where London Midland said there would be disruption "until further notice" and told passengers to travel only if they had to.

Manuel Cortes, of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, blamed cuts in maintenance budgets, adding: ""The left hand does not seem to know what the right hand is doing. The only people to suffer seem to be the poor old passengers."

On the roads, it was estimated that traffic jams meant around 700 hours of delay for drivers in the morning rush hour

At 08.50am there were 7,096 separate congestion hotspots causing 699 hours of delay, according to TomTom Traffic.

There were 5,135 miles of tailbacks across the country - over 2000 miles more than the average total jam length during a winter Tuesday morning peak of 3,076 miles.