Video: Yorkshire faces up to a week of snow

Road closures and travel update

The glacial conditions that brought widespread chaos on the roads at the weekend are set to continue with further snow expected to blanket Britain early this week.

Motoring groups were preparing for thousands of breakdowns this morning as car engines, unused by many for the last fortnight, fail to start in the subzero temperatures.

December was the coldest for 13 years and the icy picture is expected to remain for the first half of the month with fresh snowfall, severe frosts and ice on the roads.

The mercury plummeted to minus 17C in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, at the weekend as temperatures of minus 15C were predicted in parts of Scotland and northern England this week.

Temperatures of minus 8C were recorded in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, early today.

Yesterday snow fell in Kent, Yorkshire and Northumberland but the lack of heavy falls enabled the transport network to run relatively smoothly.

It was a similar picture on the railways with Network Rail reporting no major problems.

But two lines in rural areas north of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands remained closed through yesterday as a result of the snow.

Airports across the UK were busy as people flew home from Christmas holidays.

The freezing weather brought widespread difficulties on Saturday as the snow created treacherous driving conditions with more than 40 bumps and collisions reported and a number of roads closed.

Northern England was deluged with up to 6cm while heavy falls occurred in eastern Scotland with 9cm recorded lying on the ground in Edinburgh.

Lancashire Police said a male passenger in a Citroen car died in a crash on the M55 motorway near Blackpool on Saturday morning.

A man and a teenage girl were rescued and taken to hospital after becoming stuck on cliffs in freezing temperatures, the Coastguard said.

Emergency services were scrambled on Saturday following a police alert that two people were trapped in a mud bank and unable to move on cliffs off the Old Dover Road at Capel-le-Ferne in Kent.

Weather-related problems are expected to mount again this morning as millions trudge back to work.

AA spokesman Gavin Hill-Smith explained: "(Today) is likely to be one of our busiest days of the year with the cold weather affecting the return to work.

"Cars left sitting idle over the festive period are particularly vulnerable - so we expect a deluge of flat battery-related calls.

"Our expectation is that we'll get attend around 18,000 call-outs, which compares to around 9,500 on a normal Monday."

Brendan Jones, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said a lull in snow showers yesterday would be shortlived as a blanket of snow forms and start moving south from Scotland later today.

It will hover over central and eastern England through tomorrow with snow expected to fall on London and the South East by Wednesday.

Mr Jones said: "The band of snow will move down the country through tomorrow and will grind to a halt somewhere between southeast England and northern France. It will sit there for 48 hours or so and could move back, bringing a risk of significant snow in eastern England on Wednesday and Thursday."

Last month was the coldest December on average since 1996, MeteoGroup said.

Three people died after being caught in avalanches, three others were killed in a crash on a snowy stretch of motorway and a woman died after her car smashed into a pond.