Motorways and airports grind to a halt under a four-inch blanket of snow as temperatures plunge as low as -5C

 Thousands of people woke up to heavy snow as temperatures plunged below zero and motorists werewarned of dangerous conditions on the roads. Conditions will be even colder tonight as temperatures fall to -8C (18F). Western Power Networks said more than 14,000 properties had been cut off while

SSE had 10,000 customers without power - and passengers leaving London Luton Airport were facing an average delay of 80 minutes. London City departures were facing an average delay of 40 minutes, while it was 50 minutes at Stansted. On the trains, rail passengers across Britain faced disruption, with problems reported around London, Oxford, Edinburgh, Warwickshire, Hampshire and Merseyside. Pictured: Queues on the M1 near Lutterworth in Leicestershire today (left), a flight lands at Luton (top right) and a couple walk through the snow in Birmingham (bottom right).