Southeast England could see snowfalls of up to 20 cm as blizzard conditions sweep in from Russia and Scandinavia, bringing gale force winds and sending temperatures plunging.

The Met Office extended its warning for severe weather yesterday night into today to cover all of the southeast, including London, Oxfordshire and East Anglia.

The Department of Health urged the public to take extra precautions to stay warm.

The heaviest snowfalls are expected over the Chilterns and Downs and other high ground, with five to 10 cm of snow likely elsewhere.

Temperatures were likely to drop to minus three or four during last night from around three degrees and will hover close to freezing over the weekend as icy winds blow in from the Arctic.

"Tomorrow (today) is when we will start seeing it staying really cold," said a Met Office spokeswoman.

"By day it won't get above one or two and that carries on through tomorrow and Sunday, staying with temperatures a couple of degrees above freezing by day and down to minus five at night."

After today, the belt of snow showers will move northwest, across northern Ireland, western and northern Scotland and into Wales and northwest England. Although the bookies are slashing their odds for a white Christmas, the Met Office says it is still to early to predict whether the snow will continue into late next week.

Meanwhile, early winter snows forced French authorities to close the Eiffel Tower yesterday and disrupted transport as northwest Europe braced for a pre-Christmas cold snap.

The French capital and much of the north of the country awoke to find a three-inch (seven-centimetre) blanket of snow, which delayed flights from Charles de Gaulle airport by up to two hours.

The iconic Eiffel Tower was closed to visitors, and train and bus services were delayed in many areas, as daytime temperatures dropped below zero for the first time in the year and black ice coated northern roads.

Snow also fell in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands and weather experts forecast worse to come.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.