Ice and freezing fog set to cause fresh travel disruption after heavy snow

Travellers in the UK can expect more “tricky” conditions as heavy snowfall that caused disruption in parts of northern England and Scotland gives way to ice and freezing fog.

The Met Office said temperatures could drop as low as -10C overnight on Thursday in areas that have seen “lying snow”.

Various yellow warnings have been put in place across most of the UK for snow and ice which will last throughout Friday and until 9pm on Saturday.

Patches of freezing fog are expected across large areas of the country bringing a widespread frost and temperatures hovering around freezing, the Met added.

Temperatures in the Greater London area are expected to drop to 1C on Friday and parts of the South East could fall to an icy -2C.

It comes after “hazardous” conditions on Thursday caused problems for the ambulance service in Yorkshire, which struggled to keep up with the high demand, while Covid vaccinations were also affected.

Mark Millins, of Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said the bad weather was having a “severe impact” on its operations and urged people to “take extra care” when out walking or driving.

In Barnsley, South Yorkshire, all Covid vaccinations at the Priory Campus in Lundwood were postponed after 3pm due to the weather, while in Newcastle, elderly patients due to receive Covid jabs at the Centre for Life mass vaccination hub were advised to rebook their appointments to avoid the bad weather.

The Newcastle NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust tweeted: “It’s easy to do by calling 119. No need to risk travelling in the bad weather.”

Becky Mitchell, meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “Saturday is the next day we could potentially see some snow.

“We may even see some temporary snow across parts of the South East, towards East Anglia but at the moment we’re not expecting to see the same amount of snowfall as we have had.”

She added: “Into next week it’s quite uncertain but it looks like temperatures will be around average to start with – so not particularly cold.

“But, towards the end of the week there are signs we could potentially see further snowfall across northern parts of the country.”