With most of the UK on amber alert, the Met Office's second highest severe weather warning, flights were cancelled and a string of sporting fixtures fell victim to the big chill. Flurries fell over Scotland, northern England and the Midlands yesterday before moving down to London and East Anglia.
he A169 between Pickering and Whitby was closed for a short time yesterday as drivers had difficulty in the snow but the police spokesman said there were "no major issues with drivers being stuck".
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said a crew returning to their base at Robin Hood's Bay yesterday afternoon had helped several motorists who had become stuck in "severe" snow drifts.
A spokeswoman for Birmingham Airport said six flights were cancelled and 11 were diverted other other airports, including Manchester, Glasgow, Luton and Stansted.
Airport staff had hoped to reopen the runway by 2am, but the spokeswoman said the heavy snow meant it was now unlikely to open until around 6am.
A full schedule of flights is planned for Gatwick Airport, but passengers were warned of possible disruptions because of the weather. Stansted, Birmingham, Luton and Manchester airports were forced to suspend operations for a period last night as snow piled up on the runways, but normal service was expected to resume today.
On Saturday, Prime Minister David Cameron was briefed on the weather situation by Government emergency planners, while councils said they had called in extra staff to cope. Saturday saw the ice stretch across much of Britain, with skating on the Fens, ice-climbing on waterfalls in the Brecon Beacons, and the Penines blanketed in snow.
The sea froze off Dorset, and rivers and canals up and down the country were covered in ice as the temperature stayed below freezing point all day. The Department for Transport maintained it was now better prepared than ever for severe winter weather. It said salt stocks stood at more than 2.4 million tonnes – a million more than last year.
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh will attend a church service on Sunday, on the eve of the monarch's Diamond Jubilee anniversary. The royal couple will join the congregation at a place of worship in a village at the heart of the sovereign's private Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
The Queen usually spends the day privately but has two engagements planned for tomorrow.
She will visit King's Lynn Town Hall, where she will meet staff from the building and the borough council, and view some artefacts in the Stone Hall.
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