By Rebecca SheppardTHE region is bracing itself for the worst of the snow and freezing temperatures todayas the long-anticipated Arctic weather sweeps across the country.

By Rebecca Sheppard

THE region is bracing itself for the worst of the snow and freezing temperatures todayas the long-anticipated Arctic weather sweeps across the country.

The icy weather claimed its first lives yesterday when one driver was killed and several passengers were injured after two coaches collided on the B1248 near Driffield, East Yorkshire.

The vehicles were carrying a group of about 60 workers to the Malton bacon factory from nearby Hull.

The worst of the snow is expected to hit East Anglia today, but the cold snap will be short-lived with temperatures expected to rise later in the week.

East Anglian Daily Times weatherman, Ken Blowers, said: “The cold front is coming down from the north and we will get it today. It is still on course to reach the whole of East Anglia by about daybreak.

“It is quite impossible to say now what quantity of snow it will be. There will be some snow and there will be strong northerly winds with a wind chill. By the weekend it will all be over.”

The Met Office said temperatures could drop to -2C today in Ipswich, but would then rise to a maximum of 7C on Friday, when there will be sunny intervals, and 11C on Saturday, with light rain.

In Lowestoft, the weather will be slightly milder with temperatures unlikely to drop below freezing today, while in Chelmsford the maximum temperature during the day was predicted to be 2C and at night the minimum would be -2C.

Elsewhere in the country temperatures were set to plummet as low as -15C tonight.

A spokesman for the Met Office said the cold front would be bringing “a lot of nasty weather” and by 6pm tonight it should have spread across the whole of the country.

The AA said it was preparing for a breakdown rate of up to 20,000 a day, compared to the usual 12,000, and an extra 20% of patrols were also on standby.

Householders have been warned the cold snap could cause damage costing hundreds of millions of pounds due to frozen or burst pipes.

British Gas predicted the falling temperatures could trigger more than 20,000 emergency calls a day.

The Highways Agency has 700 gritters and snow-blowers ready to ensure there is no repeat of last year's winter roads chaos, when much of the country ground to a halt in icy weather, including East Anglia.

rebecca.sheppard@eadt.co.uk