The first blizzards of winter today hit the north of Scotland and began to make their way southwards.

The predicted snowfall has already arrived in Inverness, Aviemore, Caithness and Ross and Cromarty, and is expected to sweep across much of Britain over the next two days.

The Met Office issued its second severe weather warning in as many days, and the Highways Agency in England and Wales urged to drivers to prepare themselves and their cars and to slow down on roads. Councils have put their gritting teams on alert.

The Met Office said the heavy wintry showers currently affecting Scotland will move south into Northern Ireland this afternoon, then into west Wales and south-west England tonight into Friday morning, with up to 15cm of snow possible, especially on high ground.

The warning said: "Showers will fall widely as snow with local blizzard conditions, especially over high ground. Exposed coastal zones are expected to keep a mix of rain, sleet or hail leading to icy conditions."

A mountain rescue was launched after four hillwalkers got lost in heavy blizzards on the plateau of Ben Macdui in the Cairngorm mountain range, an area notorious for its atrocious weather conditions. Four mountain rescue teams were involved in the operation, but a helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth was forced to turn back because of the whiteout condition.

RAF spokesman Michael Mulford said that the hillwalkers were in their sleeping bags in a tent on top of the 4,300ft mountain when they raised the alarm. When rescue teams reached them they found that three of the men were unhurt but a stretcher was needed for the fourth. The rescuers were helping them down from the moutain

Mr Mulford said: "This is one of the most inhospitable, vicious places in the whole of the UK, so we are glad they have been found."

The weather has brought about a number of road closures across the north of Scotland. The Skye bridge has been closed to high-sided vehicles while the A939 Cockbridge to Tomintoul road, traditionally among the first to be affected by the weather, was also closed.

Icy conditions and drifting snow also made conditions difficult for drivers on other routes. Highland Council have 230 staff ready to man snow ploughs and gritters. Aberdeenshire Council has contracted 100 farmers to help clear any snowfall, in addition to its 50 gritters and 60 snow ploughs.

The Highways Agency says gritters will be treating England’s motorways and strategic roads where ice or snow is forecast. Hertfordshire Council has stockpiled 12,000 tonnes of salt and has eight roadside weather reporting stations with staff on call twenty four hours a day, and Middlesbrough Council has gritting crews on 24-hour standby which can be deployed within the hour to grit roads.

The agency is advising drivers to check for up-to-date information on weather and road conditions before they set off, and during their journey.

Power firm Scottish Hydro Electric has drafted in extra engineers to strategic points round Scotland to deal with any potential impact on power supplies, with helicopters on standby to ferry them to areas where they are needed.

A Highland Council spokesman said there had been no school closures yet, but that headteachers were continuing to monitor the situation.

A Cornish firm reported being "inundated" with orders for toboggans from across the country since snow was forecast. Patrick Polglase, managing director of Bouncy Happy People in Mylor, near Falmouth, Cornwall, said: "We’ve sold more in the last two days than we have done in the whole of this year, so we’re really looking forward to seeing if it does snow."

Bookies could have to pay out millions of pounds on a white Christmas, with punters across the country placing thousands of pounds on the traditional festive bet.

Coral has now cut the odds on snow falling on Christmas Day to 7/2 from 5/1, the shortest odds ever on a White Christmas with a month to go. William Hill says it has already accepted bets of well over £100,000 on Christmas snow, with 14 four-figure bets already accepted.

Aberdeen and Glasgow are currently joint favourites for a white Christmas, according to Hill, at 4/1, with London 9/2.

Yet the heavy snowfall moving across the country could soon be a thing of the past, it emerged. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has predicted a decrease of almost 60 per cent in the level of snowfall in the Highlands of Scotland by 2050.

Elliot Morley, the minister of state for climate change and the environment, revealed in a parliamentary written answer that snowfall levels will more than halve in much of Britain over the next 45 years. London is expected to see a 55 per cent cut and Bristol will drop by 57 per cent while Edinburgh’s snowfall will decrease by half. Inverness is expected to see a 59 per cent cut.

The figures are compared with 1961-1990 averages and are contained in a 2002 report entitled Climate Change in the UK.

Philip Eden, of the Royal Meteorological Society, told London’s Evening Standard: "We’re going to see an awful lot less snow in the future. We believe snow-free winters are going to become very common and six out of 10 will be snow-free by 2050. It’s going to be a gradual process."

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