Britain is facing another onslaught of Arctic weather with airports, rail companies and breakdown services putting extra snow teams on standby.

Temperatures are expected to plunge below freezing, causing icy roads across most of the UK before snow showers return to Scotland and the west coast.

Forecasters warned there could be up to 15cm (6in) of snow and bitter temperatures going into next week at least.

Julian Mayes, senior forecaster at MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "We're basically looking at potential icy conditions spreading down from the north, so the emphasis is on icy roads following rain.

"Tonight will end up very cold with snow showers that will affect particularly north Scotland and western coasts.

"What we're going to find on Friday is these snow showers begin to move eastwards. Going into Saturday morning, a larger area of snow is going to develop and begin to move east.

"In the early hours of Saturday morning, it will be snowing over quite a large bit of Britain and we could be seeing some appreciable snow quite widely.

"Night-time temperatures will fall to minus 5C (23F) in southern England and minus 10C (14F) in Scotland. Quite a few places may be starting below minus 10C (14F).

"Next week, it will stay cold with a further risk of snow in places."

The Met Office has issued weather warnings for icy roads across Scotland, the North West and the North East, and heavy snow for almost all of the UK.