Hundreds of schools in northern Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the north of England are closed on Tuesday as weather warnings for snow and ice continue across the country into Wednesday morning.
The Met Office has extended a yellow warning for ice across most of England, Wales and southern Scotland until 10am on Wednesday, with a yellow warning for snow and ice in place until midnight on Wednesday for the rest of northern Scotland, where up to 20cm of fresh snow is expected in some areas, with strong winds causing drifting.
The Met Office said the UK had experienced the coldest night of the year so far with a temperature of -12.5C recorded at Marham in Norfolk and Dalwhinnie, a village in the Scottish Highlands, recording -11.2C.
An amber warning for snow remains in place for large parts of north-east and northern Scotland from 11am until 7pm on Tuesday, with forecasts of five to 10cm of snow widely, and up to 15cm in places. A yellow warning for snow and ice is in place from Perth northwards until midnight on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the first named storm of the year, Storm Goretti, is expected to make landfall on Thursday, bringing further disruption and difficult travelling conditions. The Met Office has issued snow warnings for large parts of England and Wales from 6pm on Thursday when a deep area of low pressure will move across the south of the UK bringing rain, snow and strong winds.
Schools in Shetland, Orkney and Aberdeenshire remained shut on Tuesday after pupils enjoyed an extra day of holiday on Monday after the festive break due to the weather. Schools are also closed in Wales, Northern Ireland, Staffordshire and North Yorkshire.
Snowy conditions continued to disrupt road, air and rail travel on Tuesday morning with some train lines still shut after heavy snow drifted on to the tracks on Monday. In Aberdeen, the local council deployed industrial diggers in an attempt to shift snow from main thoroughfares.
National Rail said train services in northern Scotland would be disrupted until the end of the day on Tuesday, although ScotRail said services on the route between Aberdeen and Dundee would run in the morning.
The areas covered by the Met Office amber warning include parts of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Highland, Angus and Perth and Kinross.
It states: “A spell of heavy snow is expected to move east across central and northern Scotland during Tuesday, clearing to wintry showers during Tuesday night. A further 5-10cm is expected widely with 15cm in places, particularly above 200 metres.”
On Monday, Loganair cancelled flights from Aberdeen and Inverness airports, and a number of flights to and from Sumburgh airport in Shetland were cancelled, as were several departures from Kirkwall in Orkney.
In the yellow alert area, forecasters predict that 2-5cm of snow is likely to fall fairly widely, with the possibility of a further 10-15cm in some areas.
From the central belt south, forecasters predict an area of “mainly light snow” with most places likely to have no more than 1-2cm.
