As you struggle to get to work on icy roads, spare a thought for our wildlife. Britain's wild creatures are also having to cope with the worst winter for 30 years, and if the big freeze continues much longer many will lose the battle to live.
The key problem is finding enough to eat – birds that usually feed on the ground, such as robins and blackbirds, now find their food supply is under 6in of snow, leading some to perform desperate acrobatic feats on our hanging bird feeders.
But the cold weather also means that all sorts of unusual visitors are turning up in gardens, including redwings and fieldfares from Scandinavia, and reed buntings and yellowhammers from local farmland. There has even been a sighting of an escaped Senegal parrot feeding on apples in a Bristol suburb. Away from our homes, usually shy species such as snipe, woodcock, bittern and water rail are coming right out into the open to feed – making them vulnerable to attack by predators.
Indeed, predators are the big winners: peregrines are easily able to take exhausted prey, while scavengers such as buzzards and crows are finding easy pickings, because so many mammals and birds have died from starvation.
In the long term, bird populations are likely to bounce back, and other wildlife may even benefit from the return of "proper" winter. Viruses and parasites are killed off by a long cold spell, while hibernating creatures such as hedgehogs will stay asleep instead of emerging too early as they have done in mild winters. This spring is likely to be more "on time" than usual – recent years have seen topsy-turvy breeding patterns, with birds laying eggs as early as January, and then being hit by a cold spell in March that kills off their chicks.
The other big winners from the current freeze are wildlife- watchers, who are able to enjoy close-up views of unusual, shy or elusive creatures, often from the comfort of their own back window.
Stephen Moss is a naturalist, writer and broadcaster based at the BBC Natural History Unit. Snow Watch will be on BBC2 on Wednesday 13 January at 8pm.