Weather Whitby North Yorkshire

A Met Office spokesman said the snow has not settled in most areas and will turn back to rain as the day develops.

Despite the "bitterly cold" temperatures, which could be as low as minus 3C in some areas tonight, in many parts of the UK the snow and rain will clear to leave a day of clear blue skies and sunshine, according to the Met Office.

Out come the gritters

Gritters will be out in force this weekend as a cold snap takes hold of Britain, councils say.

Highways bosses have stockpiled 1.2 million tonnes of salt, according to the Local Government Association (LGA), with temperatures set to plummet and snow and sleet creating hazards on the roads.

About half of the UK's council's are at the limit of grit storage capacity.

More than 80% of councils have already placed grit bins for residents to use and the gritting fleets for most areas are armed with state-of-the-art GPS technology.

Cllr Peter Box, the LGA environment spokesman, said councils would constantly monitor weather reports to stay one step ahead of the icy conditions.

But he warned: "Council staff can't be everywhere. They rely on community-spirited residents to look out for each other."

Mr Box encouraged residents to conduct welfare checks on elderly neighbours.

He said: "They may just need an extra blanket getting down from the loft or perhaps they didn't get out to collect their medicine this week. It takes no time to check in but could potentially save lives."

Wintry weather sweeps across Britain

A swathe of rain, snow and sleet moved across the country overnight, with many places waking to wintry showers, frost and ice for the first time this season.

In northern and eastern Scotland and some parts of north east England up to 4cm of snow settled on higher ground overnight.

Graeme Whipps, 51, captured pictures of snow falling in the Chapel of Garioch in Aberdeenshire in Scotland yesterday evening.

Whilst fields as far south as Letchworth and Stevenage in Hertfordshire were covered in snow this morning and motorists in Royson, Herts, faced wintry showers.

Britain has seen a huge drop in temperature this weekend, with high of just 5C - three degrees below average for this time of year.

It comes after England has seen the second mildest start to November on record.

The weather is set to improve as the day goes on with snow showers becoming confined to Scotland and eastern and western coastal counties and sunshine elsewhere.

Wet and windy weather will sweep across Britain from the north west on Monday, bringing some milder weather, but temperatures may dip again on Tuesday.

Temperatures plunge as snow falls in the UK overnight

Parts of the UK saw a flurry of snow overnight at the start of a wintry weekend which could see temperatures plummet to minus 5C.

Snow showers were reported in parts of Scotland, Wales, northern England and the Midlands.

Around 3am, North Yorkshire Police tweeted: "Snow is falling and settling in places."