Skies are lit up by 'thundersnow' and biting 'Beast from the East' winds sweep in as winter bares its teeth again (and there's more to come)

Winter bared its teeth again yesterday, unleashing thunder, lightning and snow all at the same time over parts of Britain.
As fresh snowfalls wreaked havoc, closing schools and cancelling flights at airports, forecasters warned there was more to come.
A biting wind from Russia, nicknamed the Beast from the East, will also make seasonal temperatures of around 5C (41F) feel far colder over the next 36 hours.

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Crash: A car in the ditch after sliding off the A537 road running between Buxton and Macclesfield

Mishap: One unfortunate woman slid off the road in Derbyshire thanks to the icy conditions

Get out and push: Motorists resorted to drastic measures to get their cars moving again

Abandoned: Blizzards caused chaos to stretches of road in the Midlands and further north

Stuck: Vehicles were abandoned near Castleton in Derbyshire after the roads were rendered impassible

Visibility is reduced making for hazardous driving conditions on the A93 near Ballater, Aberdeenshire

Blizzard: Passengers waiting for the bus in Harrogate, North Yorkshire yesterday morning after an overnight storm

Brave: Harrogate commuters were pictured struggling against the elements on their way to work

Nonstop: Snow started falling overnight and continued throughout Tuesday morning and afternoon

So-called ‘thundersnow’ was reported in the Peak District, the West of Scotland and Northern Ireland, and forecasters warned more storms were possible along the east coast today and tomorrow.
Yesterday, blizzards and gales caused chaos on the roads in Yorkshire and the North West, while Manchester, Leeds Bradford and Belfast City airports all delayed or cancelled flights.

The Met Office issued a yellow ‘be aware’ warning for severe snow in the East and North East today, with up to 4in (10cm) expected on higher ground. Almost 6in (13cm) fell in parts of Scotland yesterday.
Thundersnow is triggered by cold air passing over warmer seas, picking up warmer, moist air which cools rapidly as it rises, condensing into water drops which freeze as ice crystals. Usually, these would melt and fall as rain, but in colder winter temperatures the ice stays frozen, falling as snow.

Remote: A sheep takes shelter from the snow in a wooden shed in Yorkshire

A man clears his path near Greenhaugh in Northumberland after heavy snow fall

Two people on skies get around by walking on skis and snow shoes through heavy snow in Braemar

Picturesque: 80-year-old Don Clegg enjoys a hearty walk in Kielder Forest, Northumberland

Keep together: Sheep gather in a huddle during a snowstorm near Buxton, Derbyshire

A snow shower hampers driving across the A66 in County Durham as winter returned to northern England yesterday morning

Many roads were closed as authorities struggled to keep them open after the snow

Snow covered logs next to a farmhouse near Bowes in County Durham

St Marys Church tower overlooks the snow capped rooftops in Barnard Castle, County Durham

Desperate measures: A man uses skis to walk through the heavy snow in Braemar, Aberdeenshire

Helping out: A volunteer farmer uses his tractor to help clear the roads in Glossop, Derbyshire

A four-wheel-drive vehicle negotiates the moorland road between Builth Wells and Brecon

A jogger wraps up as he heads off for his morning run in the middle of a white-out above Penistone

As the crystals collide, electrons are knocked off them, accumulating at the bottom of clouds, creating a negative charge, while the upper part of the cloud becomes positively charged, leading to discharges of lightning.
Met Office forecaster Robin Thwaytes said very cold air moving over the comparatively warm North Sea generated the thundersnow.
He added: ‘There will be lots of showers coming down the east coast towards Norfolk and they could generate one or two flashes and bangs.

WHAT IS THUNDERSNOW?

Thunder and lightning are more usually associated with warmer climates but under certain conditions they can occur in cold ones too.
Thundersnow starts out like a summer thunderstorm - the sun heats the ground and pushes masses of warm, moist air upward, creating unstable air columns.
As it rises, the moisture condenses to form clouds, which are jostled by internal turbulence.
Lightning is caused by this rubbing of the clouds against each other - thunder is the sound of lightning but as sound moves more slowly than light we hear it later.
The tricky part for making thundersnow is creating that atmospheric instability in the wintertime.
When it is cold, and particularly in air conducive to snowfall, the lower atmosphere is dry, cold and very stable.
For thundersnow to occur there needs to be a very precise set of circumstances - the air layer closer to the ground has to be warmer than the layers above, but still cold enough to create snow.
When this happens warm air rises, snow falls and thunder, lightning and snow all occur at the same time.

Chipping in: The town of Glossop has seen its roads cleared thanks to the efforts of hard-working volunteers

A man and his dog walk through tranquil scenes in Selkirk in the Scottish Borders

Extreme: Much of the northern UK was hit by the rare weather pattern of a thundersnow

Indefatigable: A farmer heads out with his dogs to feed sheep near Wark in Northumberland

York Minster is barely visible as you look down Stonegate towards the historic building

Pub Landlord John Kennedy of The Beehive removes snow from his van in Glossop

Beautiful: St Hohn the Baptist Church in Penistone, South Yorkshire was covered in snow yesterday morning

Having troubles: A snow-caked car trundles along the road outside Penistone

Landscape: A dog walker takes advantage of the weather to take his pet across the fairway of Falkirk Tryst golf course in southern Scotland

In his element: This stunning picture of a robin in the snow was captured by wildlife photographer Richard Bowler in Corwen, north Wales

‘In summer the ground is warm in comparison to the air, but in winter it is the sea which is warmer. Moist air rises off the sea, forming heavy clouds by the time it hits land.

‘If you have got snow within the cloud you will get lightning even though you might not expect it.’
He said radar had recorded thundersnow over the Peaks, while there were similar storms overnight in Glasgow, Cheshire, South Yorkshire and Northern Ireland. Britain was also lashed by high winds yesterday, which reached a top speed of 99mph in the Cairngorms.
The latest cold snap comes less than a fortnight after blizzards caused chaos across the country.

BABY BORN IN CAR PARK DURING SNOWSTORM SAVED BY PASSERS-BY

A baby born in the middle of a snowstorm was saved by the kindness of passers-by who pushed his parents' car three miles to the local hospital.
Sebastian was born four weeks premature as his mother Liz Hooley and father Tim Cross were attempting to drive through four inches of snow to Dewsbury and District Hospital in West Yorkshire last Friday.
Their car got stuck several times, so passing teenagers, pub patrons and taxi drivers helped to get them out.

Saved: Baby Sebastian was born in his parents' car as they were driving to hospital during a snowstorm

Grateful: Liz Hooley thanked the strangers who helped her and her new baby

Sebastian was born in the car outside a local grammar school, but eventually well-wishers managed to push the vehicle all the way to the hospital so that mother and child could have medical treatment.
'Every time I looked there was somebody different pushing,' Ms Hooley, 41, said. 'They made all the difference because they didn't know how vital it was to get to hospital quickly. We can't thank them enough.'
By the time the family got to hospital Sebastian was struggling to breathe and doctors could not initially find his heartbeat.
His mother, who suffered a haemorrhage in her first pregnancy, also needed urgent attention.
'When we arrived it was such a relief,' she said. 'Sebastian had a very low temperature and breathing difficulties and was taken to the neonatal ward for urgent treatment, where the team nicknamed him Baby Snowball.'
Mr Cross added: 'If we had been any longer then who knows what could have happened. We are just so overwhelmed by the unconditional human kindness of strangers.'

Alien landscape: A construction worker makes his way to work over fields in West Lothian

Fun: Adrian Lambert takes his daughter Eva on the school run in Glossop using a sledge

Undeterred: A herd of deer sets out on an adventure in the Cairngorms despite the foul weather

Still off to school: A family struggles through the snow in Pitsmoor, Sheffield

Work to do: A workman mounts his snowplough to clear the streets of Penistone

Danger: The pavements of Uppermill, Greater Manchester were coated with snow and ice yesterday

Approach: A snow storm rolls in to Uig bay in the Isle of Skye, bringing more weather troubles

BUT NOT EVERYONE IS WORRIED ABOUT THE COLD...

One Briton who elected not to wrap up warm yesterday was Steve Gough, above, better known as the 'Naked Rambler', who spurned all clothing as he entered Halifax Magistrates' Court.
Mr Gough was arrested nude in Halifax town centre last year, while walking all the way from Scotland to Southampton.

Motorists throughout the UK yesterday braced themselves for chaos on the roads as several inches of snow were forecast, combined with gale-force winds and sub-zero temperatures.
One of the Sheffield residents affected by the snowfall was Olympic star Jessica Ennis, who tweeted: 'More snow! Thought we'd seen the last of it!!'
In Derbyshire, teams of volunteer 'snow angels' stepped in to clear the streets after the local council admitted it did not have the resources to do the job.

A farmer in Glossop fitted a snow plough to his tractor and helped keep the town's roads safe in the wake of heavy snowfall.

The cold weather is expected to cling on during the next few days with temperatures dipping to -4C (25F) last night.
A forecaster with MeteoGroup yesterday said: 'The worst of the snow storms will have been overnight and throughout this morning, with the risk of snow decreasing throughout the day.
'By the end of the week there could be more snow storms around, and even parts of the south may see some snow.'
Gusts of 70mph will hit South-West England this afternoon, including Devon and Cornwall, while winds as strong as 60mph were due to hit western areas.
The Met Office issued amber weather warnings for snow, meaning ‘be prepared’ and yellow warnings for ice, meaning ‘be aware’, for large swathes of the country.
The Environment Agency issued four flood alerts on Monday for parts of Anglia and South-West England.

Low-lying parts of the country have been devastated by floods over the past two weeks, as torrential rains coincided with thawing snow to create dangerous conditions.

The morning after: Workmen salt pavements at the University of Glasgow after the overnight thundersnow

Excitement: Many Glaswegians took to Twitter to express surprise at the rare weather phenomenon

Heading out: The snow in Glasgow did not stop residents from business as usual this morning

Reprise: The snow, pictured here in Northumberland, came just a few weeks after the UK succumbed to the Big Freeze which seized up transport networks and covered the country in white

Treacherous: Roads in affected areas have been covered in ice with warnings of more to come

It's back: Snowfall in Greater Manchester early yesterday morning as freezing conditions returned

Preparation: A gritter leaving the Tameside Council depot in order to prevent chaos on the roads

Peaceful: Yesterday morning's sunrise over Peterborough gave no hint of the chaotic conditions experienced by much of the country overnight

Striking: Peterborough, in the east of England, was likely to escape the worst of the snowstorms

Not all doom and gloom: The winter garden at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Hampshire showed vivid colours despite the cold weather

Bright: Snowdrops and cyclamen hint that spring is not too far away, though it may not seem like it

Relaxed: Visitors soak in the beautiful scenery as they sit next to a bed of daffodils