No sign of a thaw, as frozen Britain heads for 'big icy mess'

After a week of disruption and travel chaos, it was hoped life would return to something approaching normal in the coming week.

Though the worst of the snow has fallen, temperatures continue to plummet and forecasted rain will make Britain's frozen roads and pavements even more dangerous.

"The problem is the ground temperature is lower than the air temperature so makes thawing difficult," said Aisling Creevey, a forecaster with Meteogroup, the Press Association's weather division.

"It's going to be really cold into the next 10 days."

For the south of the country, there might be a slight reprieve tomorrow with a rise in temperatures to about 5C.

But that will not be enough to counteract ice made more solid by rain predicted for tonight and tomorrow morning.

Any thaw will "be a very slow process," said Miss Creevey.

"It's a big, icy mess - I would be really advising caution, it is going to take time to thaw out."

Freezing fog is also expected to descend.

The current sub-zero winds are blowing in from Greenland and the Arctic after more easterly Siberian winds chilled the nation earlier in the week.

The big freeze left Brits shivering all week but the worst of the weather was recorded on Tuesday night going into Wednesday morning.

The coldest temperature was in Altnaharr, northern Scotland, where residents faced a very bleak minus 21.1C.

Last night Aberdeen plunged to minus 16C, Glasgow minus 10C and it was minus 6.6C in London.