Arctic front set to send temperatures plummeting

Another arctic blast will bring more snow and bitterly cold temperatures to the UK this week, forecasters have warned. Temperatures will also fall as low as minus 10C (14F), with bitter winds sweeping across Britain 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.

With many areas only just getting over the chaos left by snowstorms earlier this month, another band of snow is set to sweep down across the country on Thursday. Only the far south-west looks likely 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 yesterday after a freezing night, with the rest of the UK seeing temperatures in the low single figures.