snow
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Severe weather warnings are in place as much of the country faces perishing overnight temperatures, fearsome ice and snow as deep as 20cm.

Scotland will be hit by more snow showers tonight, along with western parts of the UK, according to the Met Office.

Sky News weather presenter Isobel Lang warned there could be up to 20cm (8in) of the white stuff in some areas.

Arctic winds will push snow showers further to the north and west tomorrow and by Saturday morning there is likely to be a blanket of snow over a large part of the UK.

Temperatures could sink as low as -6C tonight.

"North Sea coasts as far south as Norfolk will see snow and western Scotland, Northern Ireland, Irish Sea coasts, Wales and the South West will see more widespread snow," Lang said.

She added: "I'd keep an eye on the forecast if you are planning on travelling as there's the chance of disruption from ice and heavy snow throughout the next few days."

The Met Office has warned of icy roads in much of the country for the end of the week - including Wales, the North West, Yorkshire, the Midlands, the East, the South West, the South East and London.

Airports, rail companies and breakdown services are putting extra snow teams on standby.

Freight companies have warned many people may not receive Christmas gifts they bought online in time for the big day. Retailers are battling a huge backlog of orders as delivery firms struggle in the bad weather.

Mark Higson, Royal Mail managing director said: "This is already the worst December weather the UK has seen for almost 30 years."

Parts of the country came to a standstill at the end of November and start of this month when heavy snow and freezing weather led to the worst December weather for almost 30 years.

This time the travel disruption could lead to chaos as families embark on the Christmas getaway.

Gavin Hill-Smith, AA spokesman said: "As the schools start to break up from Friday, it does mean people who are having a fortnight off will start heading off and that's going to coincide with this bout of weather.

"We have got extra patrols out and we will have extra patrols on standby. We will have our Land Rovers out working as well."

Network Rail said it had snow ploughs at the ready to clear any snow from the tracks. Bad weather has already disrupted some train services in Scotland.

A spokesman said: "We're not expecting anything like we had a few weeks ago. We have been monitoring the weather forecasts very carefully.

"The main issue we could be facing is ice so we are monitoring temperatures carefully particularly in the South East where the third rail is, and that's where ice causes most problems because it stops power getting from the third rail to the trains.

"We have snow teams in place and we will be keeping equipment in strategic locations."

Gatwick airport said there were crews of 80 airport staff and 60 contract staff on call to deal with ice or snow on the runways.

It was closed for two days and flights were cancelled in early December due to the snow.

Glasgow airport is on alert for snow over the weekend and said its snow teams were on call 24 hours a day.

Thames Water said cold weather had almost quadrupled the number of burst pipes they usually deal with at this time of year.

Bookies have slashed the odds for a white Christmas this year and the wintry weather could last well into the New Year.