So we're pausing our coverage of the rail strikes and the continued cold snap across the UK.

You can always get forecasts from BBC Weather and check out Strike Daily for information about how industrial action may affect you tomorrow.

The page has been written across the day by Alys Davies, George Wright, Emily McGarvey, Christy Cooney, Craig Hutchison, Thomas Mackintosh and Adam Durbin.

It was edited by Andrew Humphrey, Jeremy Gahagan and Chris Giles.

Image source, Reuters

Of course, we haven't just been covering the weather disruption today.

Elsewhere in the UK train services have been severely disrupted after rail workers walked out in the first of a series of 48-hour strikes.

There has been no service on around half of Britain's rail lines with only a limited number of trains operating between 07:30 and 18:30 elsewhere.

Many places have no services, including most of Scotland and Wales.

Similar disruption is expected on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday as members of the RMT union at Network Rail and 14 train companies continue their industrial action in a bitter row over jobs, pay and conditions.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch apologised for the impact of rail strikes on passengers.

"We don't like disrupting the public and we apologise for the disruption that's being caused," he said.

"I believe we could have worked towards a settlement a couple of weeks ago until that was undermined by the stance that certain people have taken."

• You can read about how strike action will affect you in the coming days.

We're going to be pausing our live coverage shortly, but here's a quick recap of what has been happening weather-wise today across the UK.

• A major incident has been declared for Shetland as thousands of homes have been left without power amid plummeting temperatures
• Engineers are working to restore supplies to about 2,800 homes, but warned full restoration is only likely by the end of the week
• Temperatures across Scotland are set to remain well below freezing - including Braemar which looks like it will record another night as the coldest part of the UK
• Elsewhere, one of the boys who died after being pulled from a frozen lake in Solihull has been named locally as Jack Johnson
• Two other children died in the accident at Babbs Mill Lake on Sunday and a six-year-old boy is still in hospital

You can have a more in depth look at how long this cold snap is set to last here.

A Met Office yellow warning of snow and ice for northern Scotland has now been extended from midday on Thursday until midday on Friday.

Forecasters says strengthening winds across Scotland will prevent temperatures falling as low as previous nights.

Braemar in Aberdeenshire does, however, look set to be the coldest spot in the UK for a third night running with temperatures as low as -10°C.

Image source, Police Scotland

Searches are being made for an Aviemore man who has been reported missing in freezing weather.

Rodrigo Falcon, who is originally from Argentina and works in a local bar, was last seen in the village early on Sunday morning.

His friends, concerned that he is not adequately dressed for the wintry conditions, have been joined by volunteers in an effort to find him.

Falcon went missing after leaving Aviemore's Vault nightclub.

He was wearing a red jumper and baggy jeans, but his friends said did not have coat with him.

Police Scotland, external has appealed for sightings of the 33-year-old.

Read more here.

Now, some remarks to bring you from the Police Federation who say officers may be called upon to drive ambulances while paramedics go on strike.

Ambulance crews in England are due to walk out for two days on 21 December and 28 December in support of their pay claim.

Under national contingency plans it was understood that military personnel would be drafted in to help drive ambulances as strikes go ahead later this month, but now it has emerged that police officers may also be called upon to help drive the emergency healthcare vehicles.

The Police Federation, the body representing around 140,000 rank and file officers, say "police are not ambulance drivers or qualified paramedics".

National chairman Steve Hartshorn says the request is of "grave concern" as he warned that putting officers in ambulances would mean they are "not performing their police duties".

Image source, Getty Images

Royal Mail workers are to hold a fresh 48-hour strike from tomorrow in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

Postal workers belonging to the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will gather at picket lines outside sorting and delivery offices across the UK.

The two sides have held talks in recent weeks but the dispute remains deadlocked.

Royal Mail has brought forward the final suggested dates for posting Christmas cards because of the industrial action.

• First class mail is now Friday 16 December (instead of 21 December)
• Second class was Monday 12 December (instead of 19 December)

Meanwhile, the rail strike continues tomorrow. We've seen significantly reduced train services across England, Wales and Scotland today - and Wednesday is likely to be the same.

Find out more about how Wednesday's walkouts could affect you here.

There has been a large area of high pressure over Russia for some time and a second high pressure system has built up across Greenland and Iceland.

The second is moving slightly further west, forcing cold Arctic air to flow south between the high and low pressure systems and over the UK - a so-called Arctic blast.

That flow of cold air is then reinforcing the highs, resulting in what is known as a "blocked pattern" with the high pressure areas remaining in place for several days.

BBC Weather presenter Matt Taylor says there are some low pressure systems in the Atlantic that will probably push into western Europe and could eventually break down the blocked cold weather pattern.

This change is expected to come about through the weekend, with the chance of more snow as the less cold air pushes in, before milder air turns any snow to rain.

Read more here.

The power cuts in Shetland have been declared a major incident.

SSEN Distribution is working to restore supplies to about 2,800 homes - but Keith Brown, lead minister for resilience, said it was clear that many properties would face days without power.

Mae Jamieson tells Radio Scotland's Drivetime she lost power at 5pm last night: "It's white everywhere, it's still snowing, the roads are like a couple of inches of snow and ice, it's crazy."

She says she is pretty well prepared with a gas stove, candles everywhere and head torches, but adds that they can't go anywhere and will just have to stay home this week.

Read more here.

Temperatures are set to fall away quickly this evening, with a number of yellow weather warnings for snow and ice in force across the country, the Met Office has said.

Tuesday night saw a low of -17.3C recorded in Braemar in Aberdeenshire, breaking a record for the year of -15.7C set in the same village on Monday.

Temperatures in parts of the UK remained below freezing throughout today and will fall further now that evening has set in.

Parts of the north are expected to see lows of -10C overnight, with snow showers likely in northeast England and parts of Scotland and blizzards setting in across the most northerly areas.

The southwest of England will also see a wintry mix of coastal rain, inland sleet, and snow overnight and into Wednesday.

Yellow weather warnings for snow and ice - indicating a risk of injuries and travel disruption - are in force in northern Scotland, northeast England, Cornwall, and the eastern cost of Northern Ireland.

The warning in Scotland and northeast England is set to remain in place until midday on Friday.

Image source, PA Media

If you're just joining us or need a catch-up, here's the latest as major disruption grips the UK following disruptive weather and rail strikes:

• More snow and ice is expected across the UK after the record for the coldest night of the year was broken for the second night in a row

• The Met Office has extended a yellow warning for snow and ice for northern Scotland and north east England until 12:00 GMT on Friday
• A temperature of -17.3C was recorded in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, early on Tuesday morning, making it the coldest night of the year so far

• Members of the RMT - the UK's largest rail union - have gone on strike across Britain in a dispute between the RMT, and the train operators and Network Rail over pay, jobs and conditions
• Network Rail, urged passengers to "only travel if absolutely necessary", saying further strikes would cause "further misery" for the rail industry

• The Transport Salaried Staff Association (TSSA) rail workers’ union has announced its members at CrossCountry will strike on 26 and 27 December
• Midwives in Wales have voted for strike action over a "disappointing and unacceptable" pay award worth around 4% this year
• Physiotherapists in England and Wales have voted to go on strike just weeks after physiotherapists in Scotland also voted in favour of a strike

Image source, PA Media

Stephen Montgomery from the Scottish Hospitality Group tells BBC's Radio Scotland about how the disruption is going to have an effect on businesses: "If people aren't coming into our cities and our towns and villages to support hospitality because of strike action, there is no way that the hospitality businesses and the operators can afford to pay the bigger wages.

"We all want to pay a living wage or more, we all want to pay that.

"But the cost has to go on the product and the end user is the customer.''

Gavin Stevenson from the Night Time Industries Association Scotland says all of their members are reporting increased cancellations: "Customers are unable to get into town to enjoy the Christmas parties that they've booked.

"It's a pretty dire state of affairs all around, really."

Harry Low
Reporting from Euston station

The empty departure board tells its own story. The last train will leave here at 17:30 GMT, after which your only public transport option is to take a Tube or bus.

Even the taxi rank, which would ordinarily be thronging at rush hour, has just a handful of black cabs waiting around.

"Bitter blame game on strike misery" screams the headline on the front page of the Evening Standard newspaper which is being handed out to a smattering of passengers outside the station.

Only a few shops have remained open throughout the day, with many coffee shops deciding to stay shut with such low passengers numbers.

The icy conditions outside the station offer no hope of a thawing in relations between the unions and government.

Image source, PA Media

More now from Rishi Sunak, who has been asked about the strikes taking place this winter during interviews with broadcasters this afternoon.

Asked by BBC political editor Chris Mason whether he might offer striking public servants more money, the PM said the offer on the table was "reasonable and fair".

He said the public sector pay deals - made this summer following government-commissioned reviews - had to be "responsible" to meet the government's objective to "get a grip of inflation".

He added that “in many cases” the offers to public servants were “higher than what people in the private sector are getting,” without specifying the private-sector jobs he was referring to.

Commuters at York railway station have been telling us about how the strikes have affected their journeys.

Charlotte Jones said the action had caused “a lot of disruption".

"I’ve got to go into work, to Leeds, and I’m going to struggle to get back," she said.

"I’m going to have to get a bus much later than usual, and it takes an hour, and those services are limited as well. So it’s going to impact me quite a lot.”

Kim Lee uses the train to commute regularly between York and Leeds, but said he's "fully supportive" of the strikes.

"I think the government need to get their act together and get this sorted out rather than letting the country grind to a halt," he said.

"I blame the government, not the unions.”

Sam works selling products to the NHS. She has recently been using trains more often instead of her car to get between appointments, but says strikes make that more difficult.

"I’ve got to think about things a lot more far in advance," she said.

"In terms of how I’m going to get to work, letting my customers know that I could possibly be late, things like unforeseen circumstances, [trains] being cancelled. So it’s really not ideal."

Today's train strike is set to continue into this evening and throughout tomorrow, meaning many rail services will either not be running during rush hour or will finish early.

You can find a complete list of affected operators and information on when their trains will be running on the National Rail, external website.

In London, external, the strike has caused minor delays on the District line and severe delays on the Elizabeth line, while the Bakerloo line and the Overground are both part-suspended. A number of other lines are experiencing delays for other reasons.

On the roads, National Highways, external, which manages motorways and major A roads in England, is not currently reporting any issues from traffic related to the strikes or resulting from the cold weather.

Traffic Scotland, external, the equivalent body for Scotland, is warning motorists of the risk of ice in the regions of Strathclyde, Lothian & Borders, Central, Tayside & Fife, and the Southwest. Drivers in North Lanarkshire are also being warned of fog.

Image source, LJUBAPHOTO

It's not just the snow keeping vehicles off the roads, driving examiners and other civil servants walked out on strike this morning, until Sunday, in Scotland and across north-east England.

It's the start of a series of rolling strikes by members of the Public and Commercial Services.

These strikes are due to last until mid-January.

Tomorrow, more than 115,000 postal workers at Royal Mail are also expected to walk out.

Read more here.

Image source, PA Media

Drivers have been advised to use main roads "as much as possible" with icy roads causing the "biggest problem" today, the AA has said.

"Slow and steady is the only option when driving on frozen roads," said Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA.

Motorists are "slipping and sliding" as sub-zero temperatures have frozen snow and uncleared ice, he warned.

Meanwhile, aviation analytics firm Cirium said a total of 233 departures were cancelled from UK airports yesterday after snow, ice and freezing fog swept the UK.

Stansted was the worst affected airport, with 78 flights cancelled, however, reliability returned to normal levels today.

Parts of the UK are set to see more snow over the coming days, according to the Met Office.

The current cold temperatures have been brought by air moving south from the Arctic, but milder Atlantic air moving north will warm conditions from Saturday.

The Met Office says that transition will deliver snow, although it says the details remain unclear at this stage.

Chief Forecaster Paul Gundersen also says "spells of further wintry weather remain possible through the rest of December”.

Image source, Reuters

Welcome to Braemar, in Aberdeenshire!

It was the coldest place in the UK last night, recording a low of -17.3C (0F) - breaking Monday's record of -15.7C (3F).

The wintry weather looks set to continue as a Met Office yellow weather warning for snow and ice has been extended until 12:00 on Friday in northern Scotland.

Let's take a look at some more wintry scenes from the village.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters