SHIVER FOR 6 MORE WEEKS

® BRITS face shivering until mid-March with at least six weeks of freezing conditions forecast.

Snow is set to blanket almost every part of the UK in the coming days as the mercury plummets as low as -15C.

The Met Office warned of a “prolonged cold period” and issued further yellow warnings for snow and ice today with weekend sleet and snow flurries.

The big freeze is set to trigger more transport chaos following cancelled flights yesterday and a pile-up involving six cars on the M5 which caused gridlock across Gloucestershire.

Met Office forecaster Alex Burkill said: “There are indications of quite a prolonged cold period.

“As we go through the next 48 hours, it is going to stay cold and anywhere in the country could see snow.”

Flurry

He added: “Much of February, and perhaps even into March, it is going to stay on the cold side.”

About 80 British Airways flights at London’s Heathrow were cancelled yesterday and Monday.

Police warned that heavy snow was also causing severe problems around East Midlands Airport yesterday.

Bookmakers say it is now odds-on that we will see temperatures plunge to -15C this week.

Jessica Bridge, from Ladbrokes, said last night: “We have seen a flurry of bets. It looks like punters are hoping to cash in on the weather to pay the heating bills.”

In France, snow saw tourists turned away from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, while in Russia the army was called in to clear giant snowdrifts in Moscow.

The cold snap even saw snow fall on the dunes of the Sahara for the second time this winter.

Pictures emerged of kids sledging in Ain Sefra, Algeria. Before December, it had not snowed there for 37 years.