Treacherous black ice causes travel chaos across the country as forecasters predict more snow this afternoon… and warn that Britain could stay white for TWO WEEKS

• Met office warns of treacherous conditions as yesterday's snow turns to ice with temperatures staying at freezing
• Most of UK will only see light snow flurries today except for the north east where up to 2cms is expected
• More snow will arrive tomorrow in the south east with some places getting up to 5cms of snow
• Low temperatures preventing the snow and ice from melting means UK could stay white for a fortnight
• More than 400 flights were cancelled at Heathrow yesterday with 100 more suspended today because of snow
• Gatwick and Stansted Airports operating 'as normal' today with no reported cancellations
• Woman killed in a crash caused by bad weather on A1 at Little Ponton, near Grantham, shortly after 6pm yesterday
• Are you out in the snow? Email all your pictures to mailonlinepictures@dailymail.co.uk

Britain today faced another day of travel chaos as freezing conditions turned heavy snowfalls across the country to ice.
Forecasters warned of fresh flurries on the way this afternoon and more heavy falls to come tomorrow.
Most of the UK is likely to see very light snow today. But a yellow weather warning has been issued for the north-east with up to 2cm expected to fall this afternoon.
There were growing fears that the Arctic conditions may not recede for up to two weeks, leaving the country shivering under a layer of ice and snow in a 'once a decade' big freeze.
Met office forecaster Robin Thwaytes said: 'It looks like it will be a slow thaw, probably next week or the week after.'
Heathrow has been badly hit by the bad weather. Hundreds of passengers remained trapped at the airport after spending the night sleeping on the floor.
A hundred flights have been cancelled today and some travellers complained that they had spent seven hours sitting on a plane on the tarmac only to be told to return to the terminal. One commentator referred to the vast complex as a 'refugee camp'.

Winter wonderland: A snow boarder makes his way up towards the Ashton Court Estate, Bristol, to make the most of the year's first snowfall

The three day forecast: Most of the UK will see only light snow flurries today except for the north east where a Met office yellow weather warning is in place. More snow will move in from the south east tomorrow, with Kent and East Anglia likely to get up to 5cms of snow, before heading north into Monday morning

It's not often you can do this in Bristol: A snow boarder practices his moves on the fields on Ashton Court Estate in the city

Ex-snow-minate! Daring Luke and Katie Dixon, aged 10 and 8, challenge a Doctor Who Dalek to a snowball fight near Dibden Purlieu, Southampton, Hampshire

A cold breakfast: Farmer Liz Genever trudged through the snow to feed her sheep this morning at Croft Farm, in Uffington, Stamford, Lincolnshire

Met officer forecaster Michael Lawrence confirmed ice is the major concern now and urged travellers to be aware there is a likelihood of slippery compacted ice and black ice they may not be able to see.
He said: 'Temperatures won't rise above freezing today and some parts in the west will be as cold as -4C. Temperatures will then dip further overnight with areas in the north west dropping to -10C.'

 

Mr Lawrence added that the next wave of snow will hit the south east, including Kent and East Anglia, tomorrow before moving north into Monday. He added that the weather would start to become more settled around Thursday but the weekend could possibly bring further snow.
Meanwhile weather Channel forecaster Leon Brown added that the prolonged cold snap is a once in a decade occurrence. She said: 'We expect very cold conditions to last another week - and a two-week period such as this, with sub-zero nights and days close to freezing is a one in 10 year occurrence.
'We could see -15C to -20C lows later in the week in the Midlands, mid Wales and Scottish Highlands.'
The icy conditions are causing severe travel disruptions across the country. Just 2in (5cm) of snow yesterday was enough to lead to a runway closure at Heathrow and 404 flight cancellations.
Simon Calder, travel editor of the Independent, described Heathrow as looking like 'a refugee camp' and said people were getting increasingly angry at the lack of information and the short notice of flights being cancelled.
A Heathrow spokeswoman said that although weather conditions have improved, about 100 flights -  67 of which are departures - have had to be cancelled in a 'recovery' from yesterday.

Treacherous driving conditions: A car crashed into a ditch near Great Casterton, Stamford, Lincolnshire, because of icy roads

Playtime: James Egerton is pulled through the snow on his sledge by his dog in Bingham, Nottinghamshire

Ploughing through the snow: Daniel and James Egerton speed down a hill on their sledge in Bingham, Nottinghamshire

'In terms of how today is going so far, the weather conditions are much better today. The runways are open.
'We do have about 100 cancellations at the moment, but that's really just recovery from yesterday. Two-thirds of that 100 - 67 of the cancellations - are departures, and the remainder are arrival cancellations.
'At the moment the airport is operating as usual. We have the same number of aircraft using the runways as we normally would,' the spokeswoman said.
The cancellations come after airport bosses spent £36million on a ‘winter resilience programme’, including £11million on snow ploughs and de-icing vehicles.
Amber and Olivier Cumer, who were booked on a British Airways flight to Lyon, France, on holiday with their one-year-old daughter Anais, said: ‘It’s awful, We’ve never seen anything like this. It is just a bit of snow, it happens every year but they just don’t seem to know what to do about it.’
American Jacob Burtschi, 28, who plays professional basketball in Europe, said he couldn’t believe the problems a small amount of snow had caused.

Braving the weather: A cyclist braves the cold and frozen roads in Brislington, Bristol, where freezing temperatures have turned yesterday's snow into ice

A sledding trip... in Sunderland! Craig Richards takes his two malamutes - Alaskan sled dogs - for their first ever sled training in Barnes Park, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear

‘I have waited in line for eight hours and been told three different things and I’m no closer to getting back,’ he added.
‘For snow like this to cause this much chaos, I have not seen that before.’
British Airways had to cancel 'in the region of 30' flights today due to what it says is 'knock-on disruption from yesterday'.
A spokesman for BA said: 'We have unfortunately had to make a number of cancellations today, mainly due to knock-on disruption from yesterday, so we've got a number of aircraft out of position and it's quite a complex operation to put that back together, so that's what we're working on at the moment."
Commenting on the number of flights affected, he added: 'It's in the region of 30. Those are predominantly short-haul flights to domestic and European locations.'
BA is now offering customers who no longer wish to travel this weekend the chance to rebook their flight for a later date. It is also providing refunds and overnight accommodation to those who could not fly, or letters for them to make a claim at a later date.

Picture perfect: The Hotwells and Clifton area of Bristol looks idyllic today after heavy snow covered much of the area yesterday

Frustrated: More passengers have been left stranded at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 this morning as a further 100 flights are cancelled due to the bad weather

'Like a refugee camp': Stranded passengers are forced to sleep on the floor at Terminal 5 in Heathrow Airport as snow across the country grounds planes

On the runway: Tractors clear snow from the stands at Heathrow, where there were 404 cancellations yesterday

A board of cancellations: The departures board in Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport showing cancelled flights due to bad weather

Stranded: A waiting passenger sits on her luggage in Arrivals of Terminal 5 Heathrow Airport

Come fly with me: BA planes sit on the runway at Heathrow as staff at the country's main gateway try their best to keep the network moving

But husband and wife David and Janet Brindle, from Cumbria, branded BA's customer service and treatment of passengers caught up in the chaos as 'appalling' and said 'people were close to tears'.

The couple were due to set off on the holiday of a lifetime - five weeks in New Zealand - yesterday morning but are still at Heathrow after missing their Air New Zealand flight.

They sat on a BA plane at Manchester Airport from 9am until 3pm yesterday and Mrs Brindle said they were given very little information.

She said: 'They got us off the plane but our bags weren't off. Not a single person came to tell us what was happening.

'Most people missed their connecting long-haul flights from Heathrow. We were advised to make our own way to Heathrow so that's what we did.'

Panoramic views: Andrew Cook captured this image of Roseberry Topping from the car park at Newton Under Roseberry

Gone with the wind: Eight-year-old Carl Attwater and his mother Jane ride a sled downhill in front of the Jill Windmill at Hassocks in the south east

The couple, who stayed in a hotel near Heathrow last night, said there were 'a lot of angry people' at Manchester Airport yesterday due to the disruption, and said they would not be flying with BA again.

'Nobody knew what they were doing. They couldn't tell us anything. They were quite rude, actually,' Mrs Brindle said.

Her husband added: 'They didn't seem to have a risk-management plan in place. There was no contingency plan - there was just chaos.'
Meanwhile, Gatwick Airport is operating as normal today, with no knock-on from yesterday's bad weather, a spokeswoman said. No major cancellations are expected, and 505 flights are scheduled for the day.
'We are advising passengers to check their plans before they travel, and urge people who are travelling this weekend to be aware that there could be disruptions at airports across Europe or in other parts of the UK,' said the spokeswoman.

More to come: Georgia Marriott, nine, enjoying the snow in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, as forecasters warn more flurries are on the way

Contrasting sight: A heavy snow storm in Newcastle City Centre left the streets of Newcastle deserted last night, left, with the usual thriving Northumberland Street, pictured right, eerily silent as Friday night revellers stayed indoors

Going for the nuts: A bold squirrel takes a nut from a visitor's hand in the Museum Gardens, York, after overnight snowfall

Stansted Airport announced via its Twitter feed: 'Overnight snow clearance means flights operating as normal this morning @STN-Airport. Passengers can check flight status on airline website.'
It comes as the Met Office warns that two more nights of freezing weather could make travel even more dangerous and turn roads into treacherous ice-rinks.
Met Office chief forecaster Frank Saunders said: ‘Although some further snowfalls are likely, the focus switches to ice, with temperatures staying below zero over snow cover for many areas.’
The Met Office is still forecasting snow, but significantly less than yesterday, and has downgraded its red warning to yellow for ice over much of the country.

A walk in the country: Dog owners and walkers enjoyed the pretty scenes at Washlands Park in Staffordshire

Tell me something I don't know! This pooch probably doesn't need our graphic to let him know just how deep the snow was yesterday

Going for a ride: A father and daughter spend some quality time together playing in snow in Royston, Hertfordshire, today

Frozen planet: A passer-by admires the stunning Summerhill Force waterfall in County Durham which has almost completely frozen during the current big freeze

Paul Mott, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, added: 'It will be a cloudy, breezy and cold day for most areas, with raw easterly wind and it will struggle to get over 0C in most places.
'There will be light flurries of snow today, but nothing like yesterday. Eastern Scotland may see a bit more, perhaps 1.5in to 2in.
'But it looks like more moderate to heavy snow is on the way tomorrow afternoon and evening, affecting eastern and south-east England.
'There could be 5cm (2in) to 8cm (3.2in) in some places, and most of it will be in Kent, East Anglia, Lincolnshire and London.'
His colleague Laura Caldwell added: 'There will be a few snow showers but heavier snow moving into the south of England and spreading into the Midlands, north east Wales, East Anglia and central England.
'There will be a quite significant accumulation and it will be seen first in London and the South East before moving north later in the day.'

The only way to get around: A young man walks on the snow covered road in Hirwaun near Brecon, south Wales

Still a work day: A postman doesn't let the heavy snow stop him from delivering the mail near Banstead, Epsom, Surrey

The AA advised that the combination of compacting snow and continued icy temperatures could prove lethal for drivers.
Darron Burness, the AA's head of special operations, said: 'With the snow compacting down and turning icy, we're likely to see treacherous driving conditions throughout the weekend.
'Any fresh snow on top will just add to the problems.'
The Highways Agency said its fleet of snow ploughs and gritters will continue to be out in force across the weekend to ensure roads are passable.
This morning the M48 Severn Bridge was closed in both directions between junctions one and two because of hazardous conditions.

Bracing weather: Open-air swimming enthusiast Ovidio Salazar swims lengths in the icy waters at a lido in north London

A romantic country walk: A couple walk hand-in-hand in the snow at Wollaton Park, Nottingham

Rail travellers experienced further upheaval today as operators scrapped services, running limited 'bad weather' timetables.
South West Trains will run an amended timetable today as a precaution against the heavy snowfall, while the Eurostar will run with speed restrictions until tomorrow because of snow and ice in the UK and northern France. Two services have also been cancelled.
A number of football matches have also been postponed, including six matches in League One, eight in League Two and four matches in Scotland. Big race meetings at Ascot and Haydock have been called off.
It comes after a day where schools and airports shut down - leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.

By late last night roads were gridlocked as Britain ground to a chilly halt. There were also numerous accidents on the road with one woman killed in a crash caused by the bad weather on the A1 at Little Ponton, near Grantham, shortly after 6pm yesterday.

Working overtime: The Highways agency has a fleet of snow ploughs, pictured here in Penderyn near Brecon, south Wales, and gritters to clear the roads

Where there's a mountain: Locals make use of this small hill in Merseyside to go sledging in the snow

Seven passengers were taken to hospital after a double-decker bus collided with two cars and ploughed into a garden, Humberside Fire and Rescue Service said.

Two people in one of the cars were also treated for chest pains following the crash on the A165 in Coniston, near Hull, where several inches of snow has fallen.
Meanwhile, around 900 homes in Northern Ireland are still without power as a result of heavy snow and high winds.
Northern Ireland Electricity (NEI) said its engineers worked throughout the night to restore the supply to another 1,500 homes and are using a helicopter to check lines in the most hard-to- reach places still affected in the Newry and Downpatrick areas.
Snow fell across much of the UK yesterday, with South Wales experiencing the worst of the weather, forcing the Met Office to issue a 'red' severe weather warning.

Exhausted: Stranded passengers sleep in the arrivals hall at Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport as they wait for information about their flights

Waiting game: The departures flight board in Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport

Ten inches (25cm) of snow were recorded in parts of Wales, while around 3.5in (9cm) fell in parts of the Midlands and Wiltshire and 3in (7.5cm) was recorded at Northolt in north-west London. Forecaster Gemma Plumb of MeteoGroup said snow had come in ‘from all directions’ overnight, with strong winds in the South West and Wales causing ‘blizzard conditions’.
As snow continued to sweep across the country yesterday, Wales, the West Country, the West Midlands and southern England were the worst hit. In the West and South  Wales, 10,000 people were without power after the sheer weight of snow brought down power lines across the Western Power network.
Meanwhile, in Birmingham, drivers reported 15-minute journeys taking six times as long as the city centre became gridlocked. The situation was little better on the railways, with many operators cancelling trains because of the  difficult conditions.
Darron Burness of the AA said: ‘There’s been a big impact on the roads as the snow fell so heavily with traffic crawling on many routes and we’ve had reports of journeys taking three or four times longer than usual.’
The Met Office had a rare red severe weather warning, meaning ‘take action’, in place over the South Wales valleys, while much of Wales, the West Midlands and South and West England remained under an amber ‘be prepared’ alert.
Temperatures yesterday hovered as low as minus 3C, with Pershore, Worcestershire, and Church Lawford, Warwickshire, among the coldest locations.

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