UK weather: Britain wakes up to freezing morning with temperatures as low as -6.6C overnight

Temperatures will struggle to get above zero in some places during the day

Red deer forage for food in Glenshee as snow hits much of Scotland (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Scotland saw its coldest night of the winter so far last night with ice on roads and warnings of snow stretching from the tip of the Highlands to central Scotland.

The Met Office said temperatures across most of the UK fell below freezing last night, with some areas north of the border seeing a crisp -6.6C overnight.

The coldest temperature just before sunrise was in Eskdalemuir, a small village in Dumfries and Galloway with a population of under 300.

Forecasters said temperatures across the country would rise as the sun came up but that they would still struggle to rise above freezing in many places – probably reaching around 1C or 2C.

The Met Office issued overnight warnings of snow for the Highlands, Grampian and the Central, Tayside and Fife regions.

Ice warnings are in effect in all areas of the UK except London, the east of England and the south east England.

Kate Brown, a forecaster at the Met Office, said places with clear skies were hit with the lowest temperatures.

"People will be waking up to those very cold temperatures," she said.

"The places that may escape the worst of it are the places that have been covered in the cloud earlier on tonight so they've had that bit less time to get colder.”

Clear skies would make way for "plenty of sunshine", she added.

Forecasters had warned that last night could be the coldest night of the year, beating the the -7.7C felt in Altnaharra, Scotland, in February.

The coldest temperature this winter across the whole of the UK was recorded in England at -6.8C, colder than last night.

There have been reports from some media outlets that Britain could be set to face four weeks of snow in the coming festive period.