The South escaped a snowy start today as the predicted bad weather failed to arrive.

Snow and heavy rain were expected to move in from the South-West overnight, with temperatures plunging below freezing and up to 6cm of snow expected to fall on high ground.

But the bad weather failed to materialise and the South is unlikely to see any snow.

A spokesman for the PA Weather Centre said: "There is a very remote chance of sleet and snow over Sussex and Kent but everywhere else the prospect of bad weather has died away."