The severe cold spell is set to continue right into the Christmas weekend, according to Alan Goodman, the Met Office Regional Advisor for North West England.

Here is his latest weatehr update: "Yesterday evening patchy cloud invaded the southern end of our region and helped lift temperatures a good few degrees from the depths they had in places already reached (Crosby's minimum of -17.6C was recorded alarmingly early yesterday evening). Meanwhile in Lancashire and Cumbria away from the coast -10C to -15C was attained widely overnight.

One feature I hadn't anticipated was the intermittent mostly light snow that reached up into west Cheshire, the Wirral and parts of Liverpool overnight. These areas may see further snow flurries through the day although amounts of additional snow are likely to be small (< 1cm).

Elsewhere some patchy cloud, especially over the rest of Cheshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester. Another sub-zero day across pretty much the whole region. The coldest places (inland Cumbria) may struggle to exceed -5C.

Direct sunshine, where it occurs, may eat away at the top centimetre or so of snow cover but this apart there will be little or no real thawing of the lying snow.

This evening and overnight the temperature regime will be complicated again by the presence of patchy cloud. In general the lowest temperatures (-10C to -15C) are likely to be encountered over Cumbria while further south the cloud is liable to become more extensive, limiting the fall of temperature. There is a chance that the snow flurries across the southwest corner of the region may get a little heavier and start to extend further eastwards and a little further northwards so that parts of Merseyside, Greater Manchester and the rest of Cheshire may see some (mostly) light snow as the night wears on.

Amounts, however, should be fairly small (0 to 1cm) although we can't rule out seeing perhaps as much as 2 to 3 centimetres in a few places.

There is, unfortunately considerable doubt on the northern extent of any snow overnight so that the further south you are the greater the chance of seeing any further snow.

These small amounts of snow wouldn't ordinarily warrant a Flash warning but one may be issued if any heavier-looking areas of snow threaten to cross into the region.

Overnight temperatures in the cloudier south of the region are liable to be in the range -3C to -8C.

Tomorrow morning any residual snow should pull away eastwards, the rest of the day dry with variable cloud and some sunshine. Temperatures peaking at between 0 to -5C, lowest in inland Cumbria.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday are expected to be just about dry across the whole region with some sunshine but with the risk that under more generally clearer skies very low nocturnal temperatures (< -10C) will start to occur more widely again across the region. An added complication is the risk of patchy freezing fog. Any fog that does form could prove extremely stubborn and a real hindrance to travellers.

Friday through to Sunday is the most likely time for this.

Beyond Boxing Day there are signs that milder Atlantic air will make an attempt to break through the barrier of cold air covering the UK. This may herald a change to less cold conditions but the change, if it comes off, may well be accompanied by further snow."