Temperatures in Wales could fall to -11°C tonight as the cold snap continues. Many parts of the country have woken up to heavy snow on Friday morning but the snow is set to clear throughout the day to leave a sunny afternoon and cold night.
Traffic was brought to a standstill on the M62 in the early hours of Friday morning due to the heavy snow in the area, and parts of the A55 in north Wales were impassable. Live updates on the weather throughout the day here.
An amber warning for snow and ice is in place over parts of mid and north Wales until 9am, with a yellow warning covering a wider region of north, mid and west Wales until 2pm.
Friday's Met Office forecast for Wales says: "Overnight rain, sleet, and snow gradually clears through the early hours leaving a much drier and brighter day though still the odd snow flurry is possible. Breezy to start but winds gradually easing. A chilly day, particularly in the breeze. Maximum temperature 6 °C."
And it is set to be a very cold night with temperatures set to drop under clear skies. A record low of -16°C was recorded at Altnaharra in Scotland earlier this week. This is the lowest minimum temperature recorded in the UK in the month of March since 2010, when Braemar dropped to -18.6 °C.
BBC Weather forecaster Matt Taylor says: "We finish Friday with some sunshine and clear skies. We will have a starry night to begin with and ice will be the big story into tonight and and tomorrow morning. It could be -10°C to -12°C in some rural spots as we we start Saturday morning.
"It is going to be a bitterly cold start to your weekend. It will be a crisp, fresh sunny one for the vast majority but there will be some cloud in south west Wales. Sunniest in the morning but cloudy into the afternoon."
The Met Office forecast for Wales over the weekend says: "A cold and frosty start on Saturday, with some bright skies, before a band of rain, sleet and snow moves eastwards. Winds will gradually strengthen, particularly around coastal areas and over hills. Maximum temperature 7 °C.
"Cold again on Sunday with patchy cloud and rain arriving later. Patchy rain on Monday though turning milder. Remaining unsettled into next week with strong winds on Monday and Tuesday."
Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said the current storm, which has been named Larisa by the French weather service, is bringing rain and snow to the UK.
"Storm Larisa, which Meteo France have named, is the same low pressure system that is bringing us the bands of rain," he said. "But essentially, we're on the northern side of the low pressure system and it's the southern side of that low pressure system that is going to be bringing particularly strong winds to parts of France.
"So that did originate out in the Atlantic and then it tracked its way eastward towards us, and the weather fronts that are swirling around that low pressure system have then been pushing into the cold air that has been in places across the UK and allowing that rain to start falling as snow across several areas."
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