Picture of canal at Bradford on Avon frozen

We are still waiting for an answer to the "will it won't it" question of whether it will snow this weekend but there is no doubt it is freezing - as this picture shows.

Hayley Stevens took this picture of the frozen canal at Bradford on Avon.

The frozen canal in Bradford on Avon. Picture Hayley Stevens

Temperatures plunged to minus 11C in parts of Britain overnight as the country braced itself for more bitterly cold conditions ahead of a spell of snow this weekend.

Forecasters expect a maximum of 2C across the UK during today as the Met Office raised fears for the elderly and ill by issuing its first country-wide Level 3 Cold Weather Alert of the winter.

The alert, which is the second most serious, is tied in to the Government’s Cold Weather Plan and are relayed to organisations such as Age UK, which help the elderly through winter.

Meanwhile, severe weather warnings are in place until Sunday, with icy conditions expected in parts of the England today and snow forecast in Wales, south-west Scotland and much of England tomorrow.

Tom Tobler, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association said: “Most places will see temperatures of no more than 1C or 2C today and a few won’t get above zero.

“By tomorrow morning there’s some patchy rain and snow arriving in north-west UK.

“It will move south eastwards during the day, bringing quite a lot of snow with it.

“There could be several centimetres in much of the country, except for some western areas where it will turn more readily to rain.

“The snow should clear through Sunday, although we might see a bit more in the South East in the morning.”

Across Europe, popular travel destinations have been hit by bleak temperatures such as minus 14C in Berlin, minus 17C in Prague, minus 8C in Paris, minus 13C in Stockholm and minus 20C in Warsaw.

Britain has seen daytime temperatures plummet four or five degrees lower than average for February – traditionally the coldest month of the year.

The AA said it was 80% busier than normal and yesterday expected to attend more than 17,000 breakdowns as the cold caused a surge in flat batteries.