SECOND day of freezing fog: Travel chaos as Britain wakes to another morning cloaked in freezing mist with mercury at ZERO in London – but weather will get milder towards weekend
- Yellow weather warning for fog continues into this morning for the South and East coast up to Lincolnshire
- Brits wake up to temperatures as low as -2C in Norwich after low of -5.4C in Scottish Highlands on Monday
- Fog to clear as showers set to move from Scotland further south across England, Wales and Northern Ireland
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Travel chaos is set to grip Britain for a second morning as Brits awoke to more freezing fog and temperatures at zero in London – but the weather is set to turn mild by the end of the week.
Freezing temperatures overnight have been followed by a blanket of fog, with a weather warning for travel disruption stretching from the South coast to the East coast, up to Lincolnshire.
Today’s cold start comes as odds shortened on a White Christmas in London and other parts of the country to as low as 3-1.
Temperatures were below freezing in Norwich, Peterborough and Southampton this morning as the mercury reached a low of -5.4C in Tulloch Bridge in Scotland on Monday.
A weather warning remains in place for downpours in the Scottish Highlands today, after the Met Office forecast up to 50mm of rain could fall within 24 hours.
Central London was shrouded in a dense fog on Monday morning – with a weather warning for low visibility set to continue today. It comes as odds of a White Christmas in the capital shortened to 4-1
Fog and frosty starts are expected to clear as this week stretches on, with wind and rain set to be followed by milder weather
The Met Office has forecast rain in the north and fog in the south east today as temperatures remain chilly.
Its forecast reads: ‘Outbreaks of rain across Scotland, moving south to affect parts of Northern Ireland, northern England and Wales. Some showers in the southwest and also the far southeast. Some sunny spells elsewhere, but fog patches slow to clear and feeling cold.
Evening fog is expected to clear in the south east later today with cloud and patchy rain moving in.
Frost may settle in western parts as clearer skies approach.
Temperatures are expected to settle and become milder by the weekend, after wet and windy weather on Wednesday and Thursday.
Paddy Power has cut odds on the chances of a White Christmas across Britain.
Odds in London now sitting at 4-1, down from 11-2 yesterday.
A Paddy Power spokesman said: ‘The odds for snow on Christmas day have shortened in a few different areas due to the recent cold snap.
‘The good news is that might mean you’re trapped in your house on the 25th, the bad news is it might mean you’re trapped with some pesky in-laws, too. It might make you wish for a one-household Christmas after all.’
The shortest odds are in Scotland, with odds of 3/1 in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dundee.
There are odds of 4/1 in London and Dublin and 5/1 in Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham.
Fog patches yesterday caused havoc on Britain’s roads, including in Wiltshire, where a ‘death trap’ van was left stranded on the M4.
Foggy conditions wreaked havoc on England’s roads yesterday, including in Wiltshire where a van was left on its roof on the M4, posing a ‘death trap,’ to other motorists
As Britons awoke to freezing temperatures this morning, the Met Office has kept its weather warnings for fog and rain in England and Scotland today
Traffic police said with visibility cut by the blanket of freezing fog, and no overhead lights on that stretch, motorists would not have seen the turned-turtle van in the pitch dark.
Amazingly, vehicles managed to swerve round it and a tragedy was narrowly avoided – police cars raced to the scene at to cone off the van and flag down traffic.
Elsewhere on the roads, a driver escaped with only minor injuries unharmed after veering off a misty road in Saltersgate Bank, near Scarborough in North Yorkshire.