UK weather live: Travel updates as snow and ice cause school closures, cancellations at Heathrow and Gatwick and treacherous road conditions
Temperatures drop as low as -12C in Chillingham Barns, Northumberland
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Freezing temperatures, ice and snow have affected travel across the UK, with disruption to roads, railways and airports.
Motorists are being warned of havoc on the roads on Monday as snow turns into ice following plummeting temperatures over the weekend, which saw the mercury drop as low as -12C in Northumberland.
National Rail has said the poor conditions have affected travel across England and Wales, with Virgin Trains, Great Western and CrossCountry services all affected.
Hundreds of schools are due to close and up to 50,000 passengers have been left stranded at London’s Heathrow Airport after British Airways experienced problems de-icing a backlog of planes.
Keep up to date with the latest information on our live blog.
Airlines and several of the UK's airports are warning passengers of delays and cancellations, but so far there has been no repeat of the complete runway closures that caused severe disruption over the weekend.
Luton, Stansted, Birmingham and East Midlands airports were each forced to halt all flights on Sunday while staff cleared snow off runways. All are up and running this morning, but have warned further snow could still lead to disruption:
A number of British sporting fixtures were cancelled due to snow over the weekend. Meanwhile, in the US...
A dog had a lucky escape when it was found freezing in the snow by passing police officers in the Cambridgeshire countryside:
Snow and ice led to a 42 per cent increase in crashes on the UK's roads yesterday, fuelling a big jump in insurance claims, reports our business editor Josie Cox:
Snow and ice warning extended
The Met Office has extended a yellow severe weather warning for snow and ice until 4pm at the earliest. The warning is in place along eastern and central England, London, most of Wales, northern Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The Met Office's chief forecaster said: "Temperatures are likely to fall rapidly below freezing later on Monday across much of the area. This will lead to icy stretches, particularly where snow melt has occurred during the day, or where a mix of rain and snow has fallen across the south of the area."
While some of us are frustrated by rail delays, road closures and flight cancellations, not everyone is complaining about the weather.
Thousands of schoolchildren across the UK and Ireland have got the day off, and unsurprisingly some of them are rather pleased about it.
Danny McDonagh, from Louisburgh, County Mayo in Ireland, prepared a fake radio news report for his son and daughter, listing schools that had been closed in the area due to the snowy weather.
Here's how Ruairi, six, and Ciara, 10, reacted when their school was announced:
Mother Tracy McDonagh said: "We got a text through at 7pm last night to say the school would be closed today due to the treacherous road conditions.
"One of our family's favourite shows is an American show called The Goldbergs and an episode that they watched recently was about a snow day.
"Usually the kids in the show listen to the radio - it's set in the '80s - waiting for the school closure announcements and always end up having the only school that stays open but in this episode it was closed and they have the best snow day ever.
"Our kids wished at the time that they could have the same! So my husband Danny did a fake news report listing all the other schools around us as being closed and their school was the last one... closed."
A West Midlands council has urged people not to block roads with snow after this huge snowball was left in the middle of a street in Bearwood, near Birmingham:
The number of British Airways flights cancelled at Heathrow is rapidly approaching 200, reports The Independent's travel correspondent Simon Calder.
The airline says anyone due to fly today or tomorrow can rebook without penalty on alternative flights up to Monday 18 December.
In addition to BA, 10 other airlines' services have been cancelled: Aer Lingus (to Cork), Air France (Paris), Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong), Eurowings (Dusseldorf), Lufthansa (Frankfurt), Turkish Airlines (Istanbul), and four to Amsterdam on KLM.
The Independent has calculated 27,000 BA passengers are stranded in London, a further 20,000 stuck in European airports, and another 3,000 at airports elsewhere in the UK and neighbouring countries after their flights to Heathrow were diverted.
Heavy snowfall is also affecting airports elsewhere in Europe, with Brussels warning of cancellations:
The AA yesterday warned drivers they face hefty fines and points on their licence for failing to clear snow from their cars.
And the the driver of this car spotted by police in Essex may be about the find out the hard way:
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