As the snow flurries begin to hit us in the West, there has been transport chaos as freezing conditions closer to London cause delays to train services leaving Bristol.

Although we managed to avoid the worst of the bad weather last night which brought other parts of the country to a standstill, the conditions are causing problems for commuters travelling by train to London Paddington.

First Great Western are advising customers not to travel unless necessary, as services between Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington are partly suspended.

There is also a reduced service running from Swansea to London Paddington via Bristol Parkway.

Once the trains reach Reading, the services are being disrupted further due to the snow and freezing conditions between the station and London Paddington.

Bristol has seen several heavy snow showers so far today, and forecasters are predicting an accumulation of 1-2cm in some places.

More persistent and heavy snow are expected to reach us overnight and into tomorrow.

Rob Hutchinson, a forecaster for MeteoGroup, said we might see up to 5cms of snow in the Bristol area.

He said: "On Tuesday there might be highs of 3 or 4C and some sunshine, but there will still be showers. I wouldn't be surprised if you see some snow flakes, but it's more likely to be sleet and wet snow."

Later in the week, it looks like it will remain cold with a risk of more snow at times.

The cold spell is due to Easterly winds from Russia and Eastern Europe, which is hitting the East and southeast England the hardest.

The Highways Agency's local fleet of salt spreaders, snow ploughs and snow blowers is on standby and the roads have been salted in anticipation of the bad weather.

But the Highways Agency's Rachel Whitelock said: "Just because we are treating the roads it does not mean that people can just drive as normal - you do need to take extra care.

"We would advice motorists to check forecasts before setting out and to pack food, water, a torch and a spade as well as some warm clothes."

South Gloucestershire Council has already used 4,000 tonnes of salt to grit roads in the district in what it said was a busy start to the year.

Mark King, head of street care, said it had two new weather stations that supplied information to help staff find out the real-time condition of roads, as well as the current and predicted weather.

Gritters were out ahead of the latest snow arriving, with drivers treating 300 miles of the roads for which the council has responsibility.

They included main roads, commuter routes and at least one route into every village or populated area.

Mr King said: "In doing so we deploy 12 gritting lorries and use approximately 80 tonnes of salt per run."