Icy Britain takes a second 'snow day' by the fireside

Thousands of schools stay closed and many more employees give up the struggle to get to the office

The snow storms that have already brought chaos to Britain could continue until the end of the week, according to forecasters who have issued severe weather warnings for half of the country.

The Met Office predicted that much of Devon and Cornwall would see up to 25cm of snow this morning, while the South-east of England, London and much of the Midlands and Wales will see yet more snow tomorrow, having been the worst hit on Monday.

The predictions follow another day in which much of Britain again battled against problems brought about by the snow. About 10,000 schools across Britain have been closed since Monday, including almost every school in the nation's two biggest cities, London and Birmingham. And an estimated 6.4 million people – one fifth of the country's workforce – have failed to turn up to work as transport systems ground to a halt.

The disruption was limited mainly to the south-east of the country on Monday but yesterday the north of England, and Yorkshire in particular, bore the brunt of the snowfall, with up to 35cm falling across the Pennines. The weather forced the closure of 560 schools in the county, including all 197 in Bradford, and the closure of four of the region's main roads.

As the weather-related problems worsened, questions were asked about whether the disruption caused to schools and businesses could have been avoided. It is estimated that more than two million children enjoyed another day off school yesterday. Margaret Morrissey, of the Parents Outloud campaign group, said the decision to close so many schools was setting a bad example to children.

"We are giving children the message that when things get difficult you should just stay at home and have fun," she added. "Then, when they keep taking sick days from work when they grow up we wonder why."

"It is terribly difficult for the parents. You've got to go to work and you've got the added problem of what to do with the children."

David Frost, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said the disruption would cost Britain "a lot of money" – some economists said Monday's chaos alone cost the country's economy £1.2bn, with that figure expected to rise to £3bn if, as it is expected, the snow continues until the end of the week. He said: "One of the world's biggest economies should not be grinding to a halt. We shouldn't just buckle to it [the snow]."

The disruption to transport also continued. At Heathrow, more than 100 flights were cancelled, adding to the 868 that were put off on Monday – a decision that forced more than 700 people to sleep in Terminal 5 overnight.

Further north it was the roads that caused most of the problems. In Yorkshire the trans-Pennine A66 was closed for a second day. It was joined by the A635, the A672 and A62 as well as the A1 in Co Durham. Poor driving conditions were mirrored across the country and the AA said it dealt with more than 3,000 breakdown calls yesterday.

Trains were also affected, with 30-minute delays to the East Coast Main Line and nine services between London and Leeds cancelled. Virgin Trains ran a reduced service between Manchester and the capital.

The bad weather also caused accidents. In South Yorkshire, four teenagers were taken to hospital yesterday afternoon after a sledging accident. One of the children was airlifted to the Northern General Hospital after the accident at about 1pm at Rother Valley Country Park in Rotherham. The other three, believed to be girls, were taken by ambulance to Rotherham District General Hospital, the Yorkshire Ambulance Service said.

And drivers had to be treated for minor injuries after a nine-car pile-up, caused by ice on the road, on the M27 in Hampshire. On the M3, a coach crashed into the central reservation. No one was injured.

Trains: Services set to resume today

There should be a near normal train service today, depending on the weather overnight. Most of yesterday's problems were south of the Thames. There was also disruption in Wales early on, because of staff having difficulty getting to work.

The main train operators have details of delays and cancellations on their websites, but yesterday morning several of the websites crashed because of the number of people trying to access them.

In parts of the south of England there were no trains running at all for a second day. Anyone travelling between London and either Bristol, Cardiff or Birmingham also suffered long delays.

Councils: Rubbish piles up in the cold

One sound that many people have missed over the past two days is the clatter of the bin men.

Some councils were not able to say whether they would be able to start again today, although collections are expected to resume in several London boroughs, and other areas including Milton Keynes and Mid-Bedfordshire.

There should be mail deliveries almost everywhere today, except in some rural parts of Wales. Royal Mail said it had had difficulties moving letters and parcels posted over the weekend because of the disruption to transport on Monday, but in most places it should arrive today if it had not arrived yesterday.

Roads: Drivers urged to cut speed as public transport returns

All the motorways and major roads should be back to normal today, after thousands of tonnes of grit was poured on to them again yesterday. However, not all side roads have been cleared, and if your car is parked on a slope, you may have real difficulty starting off at all.

Once the A66 connecting Cumbria to North Yorkshire was cleared, all the major road networks were back in use. The buses were also back in service. London's Mayor, Boris Johnson, praised the "heroic" achievement of transport staff.

But London's dial-a-ride service was cancelled for a second day, leaving elderly or disabled people trapped in their homes, because of the risk of accidents in the back streets. Recovery vehicles were kept busy rescuing motorists who had suffered breakdowns or accidents. The AA had been called out 9,700 times by late lunchtime, and was expecting the day's total to exceed 15,000, which is 50 per cent more than is normal for a Tuesday in winter.

Its staff were also shocked by the speed at which some people were driving across icy roads. "Many of them have never driven in conditions like this before and don't realise how dangerous it is," a spokesman said.

Experts are arguing over just how long Monday's traffic jam on the M25 actually was. The navigation firm Tom Tom had said that it stretched more than 53 miles. However, a Highways Agency spokesman said: "We monitored it on our cameras and it was not more than 10 miles."

Theatre: The show goes on (probably)

If you have theatre tickets for tonight, it might be worth checking that the performance is still on, although the risk that it has been cancelled is slight. It was a different story on Monday, when at least 20 London performances were cancelled because the management could not rely on the cast and crew being there and being able to get home afterwards.

London's St Martin's Theatre had to call off the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie. It has been running since 1952 and has missed only two previous performances, after the 7 July 2005 bombs, and during the three-day week in 1974.

Airports: Disruption to flights easing

Britain's airports ought to be operating a full service this morning, but BAA is advising passengers either to check its website or ring their airline before heading to the airport.

Yesterday was a second day of disruption and cancellations for air travellers, although all the main airports except Southampton were open and struggling to get back to normal. In Heathrow, 59 arrivals and 49 departures were cancelled, from a daily total of about 1,300 flights, which was improvement on the previous day, when 868 flights were lost.

There were a few cancellations at most other airports except Stansted, the first to get back to normal.

Hospitals: Patience is a patient's virtue

If you have an appointment today at the Royal County Hospital in Guildford, Surrey, please do not ring to check whether it is on, because the switchboard has been unable to cope with the high volume of calls received. On Monday, the hospital was snowed in, but yesterday about 50 soldiers from the nearby Aldershot base dug it out. The hospital is running "as many clinics as possible".

Almost every hospital in Surrey was affected by the snow, but most hope to be fully operational today. In London, almost 70 hospitals were closed to outpatients on Monday, and there were similar problems elsewhere, but most should be running normally today.