Britain's big freeze continued to cause chaos across parts of the country yesterday as tens of thousands of motorists were left stranded in the busiest day of breakdowns in five years.

Britain's big freeze continued to cause chaos across parts of the country yesterday as tens of thousands of motorists were left stranded in the busiest day of breakdowns in five years.

Aboyne, in Aberdeenshire, was the coldest place in the UK overnight on Monday with the temperature falling to -11C.

A Met Office spokesman said a band of cloud - and rain, sleet and snow which fell overnight on icy roads across north-east Scotland causing a spate of accidents - led the temperature in Aboyne to rise by 12C to 1C in just three hours.

The sleet and snow resulted in three crashes on the A952 near Mintlaw, one involving a lorry and a car. No-one was injured.

Skiers were able to take advantage of the cold weather.

There have already been 32 ski days at the Lecht in Aberdeenshire this season, which compares with 52 for the whole of last winter.

The Met Office said Scotland would enjoy milder weather for the rest of the week with temperatures reaching double figures. However, this would come at "a cost" as the weekend was expected to be very wet and windy.

Tens of thousands of motorists were left stranded yesterday in parts of England and Wales as temperatures fell to about minus 10C.

The AA and RAC said the situation was worse than it had been since 2004, with an estimated 50,000 call-outs over two days and a series of road accidents.

Meanwhile, the Met Office is awaiting confirmation of a gust of 194mph in the Cairngorms on December 19. If confirmed, this would be only 37mph short of the world's most powerful gust, on Mount Washington in New Hampshire in the US, in 1934. The Cairngorms hold the record for the strongest gust in the UK - 173mph in 1986.