People across north Essex have woken up to snow. 

The Met Office expects the snow to continue falling in Colchester and the surrounding areas until 9am when it will change to sleet. 

It had warned of icy temperatures could cause showery rain to fall as sleet or snow in parts of southern England today.

Our camera club members have already been out and about snapping pictures this morning. 

The Met Office also warned roads and railways likely to be affected with longer journey times, with the potential for icy patches to form on untreated roads.

Elsewhere in the UK snow is expected in the north, Wales and Scotland. 

Read more >>> 'Up to 2 inches in winter blast' -Here's when snow is set to be falling in Essex

Alex Burkill, meteorologist at the Met Office, said the “most significant snow” was likely to fall in England, in Cumbria and the Pennines – where areas above 400m could see up to 10cm.

Echo: Louis Turkentine took this outside Sainsbury's Louis Turkentine took this outside Sainsbury's

  • Louis Turkentine​ took this outside Sainsbury's

“That’s a significant amount of snow especially this early in December,” he said.

“The snowiest months are usually a bit later into winter, January and February and also it’s very early in December at the moment.”

Mr Burkill added that the conditions could “quite easily make it the coldest night of the year so far”.

Echo:

  • Amy Rogers took this at the Platform 2 cafe at the East Anglian Railway Museum​

The previous coldest temperature this year was recorded at Balmoral, Scotland, in February, where the mercury dropped to minus 10.2C (13.6F).

The Met Office said the cold spell is expected to last through Friday but that the weekend would see brighter weather and even some sunshine.

It added that temperatures going into next week would be lower than the average annual temperature, which is usually around 7-9C (45-48F).