Winter wonderland as Britain shivers in the deep freeze
HERDS of deer, llamas and hill sledgers were out in force to turn snowy Britain into a winter wonderland yesterday.
The big freeze produced some spectacular landscapes and picture postcard scenes in Yorkshire and Derbyshire.
The freeze is set to continue today with more snow forecast after the coldest night in seven years.
Scotland was predicted to see lows of -16C (3F) this morning, with the temperature plummeting to -10C in the south of England.
Motorists have been warned to be wary of icy roads as gritting salt is less effective when temperatures drop below -5C.
The RAC has predicted 100,000 breakdowns on roads nationwide between yesterday and tomorrow.
This comes after thousands of people were trapped and delayed and had their journeys disrupted on Friday night, with police working until 2am yesterday to free vehicles from the M3 near Basingstoke in Hampshire. Meteorologist Alex Burkill said parts of England would see sub-zero temperatures last night, with the South potentially reaching negative double figures.
He said: “We’ll see some snow showers around the far North, the far West and the far East of the UK on Saturday.
“We could get down to -16C in Scotland, but it’s worth bearing in mind that even across the South we could get into negative double figures.”
Despite Highways England having a fleet of salt-spreaders covering hundreds of miles of England’s motorways and major roads yesterday to keep traffic moving, chilly temperatures overnight could make roads icy and treacherous this morning.