Britain braced for snow and plunging temperatures

Another arctic blast will bring more snow and bitterly cold temperatures to the UK this week, forecasters have warned.

With many areas only just getting over the snowstorms earlier this month, another band of snow is set to sweep down across the country on Thursday.

Temperatures will also fall as low as minus 10C (14F), with bitter winds blowing in from the north.

The worst-hit areas are forecast to be north-east Scotland and eastern England, which were among the snowiest areas over the past two weeks.

Only the far south west looks set to escape the latest wintry blast.

Andy Ratcliffe, a forecaster at MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "On Thursday a cold front will move south across the UK.

"This will give rain initially, but it will turn to snow on its back edge."

Scotland woke up to widespread icy roads today after a freezing night, with the rest of the UK seeing temperatures in the low single figures.

Airports, trains and roads were all badly disrupted by the cold spell earlier this month.