Met Office warns of 'bitingly cold' Wednesday morning after snow covers parts of the UK

The Met Office has warned of a “bitingly cold” Wednesday morning, bringing risks of ice and snow after parts of the UK were hit with the white stuff on Tuesday.

Motorists faced difficult driving conditions on Tuesday morning as snow and sleet fell in some areas, while 10 schools in the Highlands were closed due to bad weather.

Traffic Scotland reported snowfall on parts of the M80 and M77 on Tuesday morning while Amey reported snow on the M8, M9 and A7.

Cumbria Roads Police also urged people to slow down as it shared an image of a car overturned between junctions 36 and 39 of the A6 near the village of Shap.

In a tweet on Tuesday evening, the Met Office warned of plummeting temperatures on Wednesday, saying: “It will be bitingly cold on Wednesday morning, with the risk of #ice for many and some #snow showers.”

It also shared radar images of the UK, showing areas that had been affected by rain, sleet and snow, saying that some snow had been reported across parts of Birmingham.

The Met Office had issued yellow weather warnings of snow and ice for most of the UK on Tuesday into Wednesday and later put a further warning in place from 3pm Thursday to noon on Friday.

Up to 10cm of snow was expected to fall on higher ground as temperatures drop across large parts of the UK, with around 0.4in to 1.2in (1cm-3cm) set to accumulate on lower-lying levels and 2in to 4in (5cm-10cm) on higher ground.

However, experts dismissed reports of a “snow bomb” hitting the UK.

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A Met Office spokesman said: “We don’t know where that came from. It’s not a term we would use”.

Channel 4’s resident weatherman Liam Dutton wrote on Twitter: ‘I can’t make it any clearer than this…THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SNOW BOMB!!!”

Temperatures fell as low as minus 7C (19F) in the Highlands on Monday night, while the capital was at just about freezing as large parts of the country woke up to frost.

Snow showers could return on Wednesday and there is a risk of further disruptive snow and ice to parts of the country towards the end of the week.