West Midlands in grip of an Arctic blast

?The worst winter weather to hit Britain for nearly a century left the West Midlands struggling to cope today - with no end in sight to the big freeze.

See also: Arctic weather hits West Midlands: live blog

Roads, rail services and flights were plunged into chaos for the third day in a row amid warnings of more snow on the way. Temperatures plunged to -13C (8F) in parts of the region last night, leading to treacherous conditions for drivers today.

The Met Office is warning of "extreme cold", with possible snow showers returning tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday.

Commuters and Christmas shoppers faced widespread disruption caused by icy roads and freezing fog, despite gritters spending the night treating major routes.

The M5, which saw four hours of tailbacks after being closed northbound on Saturday between Worcester and Halesowen, was again brought to a standstill today after a van and a car crashed between junctions two at Oldbury and one at West Bromwich.

Two lanes of the southbound carriageway were temporarily closed while the wreckage was cleared just after 6.40am.

Other major routes including The Keyway and the Black Country Route were also at a crawl.

Trains in Birmingham were also cancelled today due to fuel freezing, and there were delays and cancellations on the London Midland services due to point failures.

Flights from Birmingham Airport were delayed or cancelled this morning and hundreds of people remaianed camped out at Gatwick and Heathrow.

British Airways today cancelled 70 of its 130 departures at Heathrow while 89 of its 133 arrivals have been suspended. Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports were also severely disrupted.

Gatwick was open today with operations "returning to normal", but passengers have been warned to contact their airline before travelling.

The disruption comes after up to five inches of snow brought havoc to the Black Country and Staffordshire over the weekend.

The busiest shopping weekend of the year was hit hard, with the Merry Hill Centre in Brierley Hill forced to bring in a snow plough to clear its car parks yesterday. Some shops closed early.

Frustrated shoppers told today how they queued for up to four hours to get off the site following Saturday's prolonged snow fall, which led to the centre closing two hours early at 6pm.

Around 6,000 shops, homes and businesses in Wolverhampton city centre lost their water supply on Saturday due to pressure problems.

And racing at Wolverhampton was cancelled today due to ice on the all-weather track.

The AA and RAC experienced more calls than at any other time in the year over the weekend.

Councils vowed they had gritted roads but said the severity of the weather had been unprecedented.

Gas demand across Britain was also expected to hit a record 465.8 million cubic metres today.

Temperatures were expected to remain as low as -7C (19F) for most of today, with forecasters warning a high of -5C (23F) for much of the region.

Met Office spokeswoman Helen Chivers said the West Midlands faces a week of "extreme cold" — and possibly more snow. "Temperatures overnight will drop to -10C (14F) overnight and it could go even lower than that," she added.