A YELLOW warning of snow and ice for South West England, including Wiltshire and Swindon, has been issued by the Met Office.

Showers during this afternoon and evening are expected to fall increasingly as sleet, snow and hail. This may settle in places, especially from late afternoon and more especially on high ground.

In addition, a more persistent spell of rain, sleet and and snow may affect the west and south of the yellow area during the early hours of Friday morning.

The Met Office said most areas were unlikely to see large amounts of snow but icy stretches are likely to form on untreated surfaces and there was a risk of some travel disruption and difficult driving conditions.

The chief forecaster said: "During the early hours of Friday morning a more persistent spell of rain, sleet and snow may affect parts of Wales, the Midlands and southern England.

"One to two cm of snow is possible at low levels whilst locally up to 5 cm could settle on high ground above about 150m.

"However, this is rather uncertain and many places will see little, if any, lying snow, and ice is more likely to be a hazard."

The yellow warning takes effect from 3pm today and is valid until 11am tomorrow.

Further north schools, transport and mobile phone signals were disrupted today after heavy snow hit parts of the country.

Manchester Airport was closed and more than a dozen rail services between the city and Yorkshire were cancelled as the north west of England was hit hard by the wintry conditions.

Main roads in Durham and Yorkshire were also shut as the Highways Agency warned that heavy snow had fallen across the north.

And schools in Cumbria and Northern Ireland were forced to close as the fresh snow swept in.

Some passengers at Manchester Airport took to Twitter to vent their frustration.

Adrian Cole tweeted: "In Hale this morning and there's about 10mm of snow, 2 mins up the road and they've shut Manchester airport!!!"

Anna Kotsonouris tweeted that her husband had been "sitting on Tarmac waiting to disembark for over 1 hour".

An spokesman responded by saying: "We cannot control the weather, our teams are fully ready to clear the snow but we must ensure the airfield is safe."

The disruption was caused in part by "thundersnow storms".

The Met Office issued an amber "be prepared" snow warning covering swathes of Britain, from Liverpool Bay across to the Humber to the western side of the Welsh mountains.

Met Office forecaster Simon Partridge said: "We have got snow falling in a number of areas in the North and West, including thunderstorms.

"There is thundersnow to the north of Manchester - these are normal thunderstorms but with snow rather than rain. The lightning on the white flakes is quite dramatic."

Showers and overnight frosts also brought the risk of icy stretches forming on untreated surfaces, while strong winds accentuated the bitter cold feel.

The weather was forecast to turn slightly milder tomorrow, reaching up to 7C in the south.

But an Arctic blast will send a fresh wave of snow and freezing temperatures over the weekend.

More than 130 schools were forced to close across Northern Ireland. A total of 34 schools were closed in Cumbria, with half of these in Carlisle.

Twenty schools in Oldham, Greater Manchester, were also forced to close because of snow, as were 13 schools in Rossendale, Lancashire.

Met Office forecaster Laura Young said the deepest snow fell in Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland.

Tulloch Bridge in Inverness-shire had 23cm (9ins) of snow while there was 21cm (8ins) at Glenanne in Armagh and Spadeadam in Cumbria had 13cm (5ins).