SNOW will shower the region and temperatures will be close to freezing as the cold snap continues throughout this weekend.Ken Blowers EADT said that snow showers would be coming off the North Sea todayand tomorrowwith bright periods between.

SNOW will shower the region and temperatures will be close to freezing as the cold snap continues throughout this weekend.

Ken Blowers EADT said that snow showers would be coming off the North Sea todayand tomorrowwith bright periods between.

"Then things will greatly improve so by the middle of next week it will become very much drier and nowhere near as cold", he added.

He said that yesterdaysnow and hail fell over the region and temperatures dropped as low as minus 2C (28F) on Thursdaynight.

Last nightthe mercury was set to plummet to 1C (31F) but would rise to 8C (46F) by Tuesday or Wednesday.

With nearly all the schools in the north of the county closed it was an extra day's holiday for many youngsters. Several were determined to make the most of the opportunity and sledges were used in parks around the Halesworth area with snowmen appearing in many gardens.

Moira Jackson, a spokeswoman for Suffolk County Council, said a total of 55 schools across the county shut their doors yesterday .

Headteachers decided to close their schools to protect the health and safety of pupils and staff while they were at the schools, she said.

They would also have considered the potential risks to people travelling to and from school, particularly from rural areas, and the forecasts to ensure that people would not be stranded if the weather deteriorated.

"The head teachers make the decisions at the earliest opportunity and inform parents as soon as possible through local radio stations", she added.

The council also confirmed that gritters had been out across the county on Thursday night and yesterday to ensure all one and two priority routes – A and B roads - were covered.

They started work at 3.30pm yesterday and would be working on the routes again at about 4am this morning .

A spokeswoman said: "The west of the county has had three to four inches in the Lowestoft area varying to one inch at Woodbridge.

"The central area has had two inches around the Eye area, varying to one inch around Ipswich. The west of the county, in the Sudbury area, had no snow until later in the day. At 7am the priority routes in that area were treated to overcome falls of snow that were occurring at that moment."

She added: "Untreated routes will be affected by ice even if the further snow showers do not settle."

A spokesman for Suffolk police said that there were a "few little problems" in the county yesterday morning due to the weather, with some cars spinning off roads.

Postal workers faced a difficult task getting all the mail delivered in north Suffolk yesterday morning following heavy overnight snow showers.

A lot of the minor roads leading to villages and isolated homes in the largely rural area were left in a treacherous condition.

"It was very nearly a case of us not being able to get through in some cases. The roads were very bad, especially first thing," said one postal worker.

Pavements in the centre of Halesworth, and other towns in north Suffolk, were extremely dangerous for much of the day as a general thaw led to widespread slush.

In Essex,