'A ridge of high pressure is spreading slowly over the British Isles from the West. Weather will be mainly fine apart from snow showers on the East and North coasts and locally on the West coast. Fog will develop near large towns in many parts of England and Wales during the night. It will be very cold with severe night frost and temperatures near or slightly above freezing point in the middle of the day' At 0600-the low which gave the snow in Ireland, Scotland and NE England earlier in the week is continuing to tour Europe and is now a major feature centred just north of Hamburg. Over the British Isles the winds are generally NNW to F5 in the east but lighter or even calm in western areas. Cloudy with a few snow showers in the east (and SW Wales) otherwise clearer skies in the south and west. Generally much colder than previous mornings with most places below freezing. Lowest temperature 10°F (-12.2°C) at Prestwick and the warmest 34°F (1.1°C) at Malin Head. Cloudy with snow in most areas over the near Continent. Alborg (N.Denmark) reports 14°F (-10°C), wind F6 and blowing snow. Overnight minima- Coldest Prestwick 8°F (-13.3°C), Aldergrove 10°F (-12.2°C) and warmest Scilly 36°F (2.2°C) Previous day's maxima-continued to be generally above freezing. Coldest Dalwhinnie (1176 'asl) on 27°F (-2.8°C) and warmest Scilly and Valentia on 45°F (7.2°C) Precipitation-dry or trace in most places although eastern areas report higher e.g. W.Raynham 8mm, Leeming and Tynemouth 6mm Sunshine-once again sunniest in western districts, 8.1 hours at Lizard (Cornwall) Snow cover/depth-extent of cover much as in previous days. Greatest depth of snow reported is Gorleston on 18" (although I am somewhat sceptical of this figure) otherwise West Raynham and Lerwick are the deepest on 15"