Schools closed and travellers hit as snow continues
Thousands of motorists have been delayed or stranded by the snow
Thousands of schools are closed and travellers have been hit by major disruption after further heavy snowfall hit large parts of the UK.
Parts of Scotland and northern England have had more snow, which has also spread to southern areas of the UK.
The military was called in after up to 1,000 vehicles were stranded when snow blocked the A3 in Hampshire overnight.
Some rail firms have reduced services, many roads are badly affected and flights have been delayed or cancelled.
The worst-hit areas have been central southern England and parts of the South West and south Wales. Counties most affected include Surrey, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Berkshire and parts of Gloucestershire and Buckinghamshire.
Some people in Sussex and Surrey have been left without power but energy company EDF is not sure how many customers have been affected.
Meanwhile, an eight-year-old boy has been airlifted to Nottingham for a kidney transplant after he and his father got stuck in snow trying to reach the QMC Hospital.
They set off from Gainsborough in Lincolnshire on Wednesday morning after hearing an organ was available.
In various parts of southern England, coastguard services are helping ambulances to get paramedics into hard-to-reach areas.
"This is being achieved by the use of our 4X4 vehicles and Coastguard rescue officers," a spokesman said.
Airport closures
The Met Office said between 35cm (14in) and 40cm (16in) of snow had fallen in some parts of southern central England.
BBC forecaster John Hammond said the weather would clear over most areas during Wednesday, with bands of snow moving eastwards to deposit up to 15cm (6ins) over south-east England and East Anglia during the afternoon.
"Once the snow has finally cleared away, ice will be the major problem for all of us as we go into the night," he said.
Temperatures of -10C (14F) in rural areas - and even as low as -20C (-4F) in parts of Scotland - will cause snow to freeze, making for treacherous driving conditions.
Nearly half of workers have not travelled to work, according to a snap poll of more than 460 companies by employment law firm Peninsula. It suggested 44% of employees had decided to work from home.
Gatwick Airport remains closed, and Cardiff Airport has limited services. Heathrow, Birmingham, Luton, Glasgow and Southampton are open but suffering delays and cancellations.
Stansted Airport in Essex closed around 1000 GMT but reopened around midday. Bournemouth and Jersey airports have also reopened but Aberdeen Airport has closed to clear snow from the runways.
Thousands of schools have closed their doors again on Wednesday.
More than 1,000 have shut in Wales, and the same number in the West Midlands. About 450 in Devon and Cornwall have shut, 500 in Hampshire, Dorset and Isle of Wight, and 400 in the Somerset area.
Hundreds more have closed in Herefordshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire and north-east England.
In Scotland, all schools in central Borders, East Lothian and Midlothian, Shetland and Aberdeenshire are so far closed, as well as half the schools in Dumfries and Galloway.
On the roads, North Yorkshire Police said a serious accident had closed parts of the A1. The road was shut southbound between the junctions with the A6136 and the A684, and northbound between junction 49 and the A6136.
The Highways Agency said the A66 in Cumbria was also shut between the A1 and the A685.
Police in the Borders said conditions were so bad that people should avoid travelling.
Supplies of road grit and salt are running low, according to many councils, with only major roads being treated in several places.
WEATHER AND TRAVEL INFO
Get the latest on school closures and travel problems via your BBC Local website
Check if snow is forecast in your area at BBC Weather
Details of motorway and local road closures and public transport disruption are available at BBC Travel News For advice on handling difficult driving conditions, see the Highways Agency website
For information about severe weather warnings, see the Met Office website
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Restrictions on lorry movements to and from the Winsford mine in Cheshire, the UK's biggest rock salt mine, are being eased to help meet the huge demand for salt during the big freeze.
But the owners of the mine said the main issue was producing more rock salt to meet demand.
At 1400 GMT, Cheshire Police said there were about 100 lorries waiting to get into the salt works, causing tailbacks in nearby towns.
Sand from the beach at Scarborough is being used by council workers to grit pathways in the town.
AA spokesman Donald MacSporran said breakdown crews were struggling to get to stranded motorists because their vehicles were "no better at getting through snow than any other modern car".
Police worked with the armed forces and fire service in Hampshire, using military trucks and Land Rovers to get to motorists stranded on the A3(M).
TV presenter Annabel Giles was among the hundreds of drivers stranded on the roads. She was stuck in her car on the A3 for more than 22 hours.
She told the BBC News website she does not know when she will be able to get back to Brighton.
"You can't sleep because the traffic keeps moving on a couple of inches and everyone starts beeping their horns and you have to wake up and get into gear and move on," she said.
The UK is in the grip of its longest cold snap for almost 30 years, and extreme or severe weather warnings are still in place across the UK for both snow and ice.
The current lowest temperature recorded during this freeze is -18C in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, on 29 December. The lowest ever in the UK is -27C.
In Wales there was heavy snowfall overnight, particularly in the south, with 15cm (6in) at Sennybridge near Brecon, and unconfirmed reports of 30.5 cm (1ft) at Newtown in Powys.
About a dozen mountain roads have been closed because of the snow.
Among other developments:
• National Rail Enquiries have set up a special number for information about trains affected by the weather, on 08453 017 641
• Twelve lorries jack-knifed on the A1 near the Angel of the North overnight, and police also had to deal with two dozen lorries stuck on the main A1 across the River Tyne at Blaydon Bridge
• East Midlands Trains between Sheffield and Leeds were cancelled
• All First Bus services in Bristol, Bath and Somerset have been cancelled because of heavy snow
• Bracknell's Bagshot Road was shut when three lorries jack-knifed within a short period
• Both runways at Heathrow Airport are now operating although more than 120 flights have been cancelled
• Forty motorists were evacuated to a rest centre after police found them shivering in a bus shelter on the Isle of Wight
• Other major roads affected by closures included the A628 in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, the A30 in Devon
• Honda and BMW's Mini shut their plants in Swindon and Oxford respectively because of the bad weather
• Nurses having problems getting to work at the University Hospital of Wales were taken there by South Wales Police officers.
The Association of Train Operating Companies said trains were worst affected in London and the South East, where most operators are running reduced services.
SNOW TRAVEL ADVICE
If your journey is not essential, wait until local conditions improve.
If you are driving, check the weather conditions before you set out.
Listen to travel bulletins on the radio.
Take spare warm clothes, food, water, boots, a torch and, if you have one, a spade with you.
Make sure there is enough braking and stopping distance between your car and the next.
Be careful even after road surfaces have been treated with salt.
Source: Highways Agency
It said, by 1230 GMT, 61% of trains had run on time, 34% had arrived late and 5% had been cancelled.
Some train operators are running revised timetables as they cope with the freezing conditions.
These include East Coast, East Midlands, Chiltern Railways, First Great Western, Arriva Trains Wales, National Express East Anglia, South West Trains, Southeastern, Southern and First Capital Connect.
However, special de-icer trains ran through the night to try to keep tracks and overhead cables free of snow and ice.
London escaped the worst of the snow overnight, and Transport for London said a good service was operating on most Tube lines and buses.
But commuters on train services out of the capital are being warned of serious disruption on Wednesday night, with some trains out of Victoria and Charing Cross finishing as early as 2015 GMT to some destinations.
Several hospitals across the UK, including some in Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Surrey have cancelled most of their outpatient appointments in order to focus on emergencies.
Meanwhile Reading's Royal Berkshire Hospital has sent midwives out in 4x4s to help a number of women in labour.
In sport, Wednesday's Carling Cup semi-final between Manchester City and Manchester United has been postponed, and horse racing has been abandoned at Southwell and Hexham on Wednesday, and Huntingdon and Ludlow on Thursday.
Friday's National Hunt meeting at Bangor has also been abandoned, as has Saturday's fixture at Wincanton and Sunday's race at Hereford.
On Tuesday, up to 20cm (8in) of snow fell in parts of Scotland and northern England, causing travel chaos for millions of people.
