Yesterday, around three inches of snow fell in the town, with five inches recorded on rural higher ground.

However, local weather forecasters believe the worst is over. One of Scarborough’s Met Office recorders, Richard Thompson, predicted the weekend would be brighter.

He said: “It will warm up a bit but it will still be cold. The snow has just about passed through so it should be alright.”

A total of 27 road crashes were reported to North Yorkshire Police during a four-hour period, including three in the Scarborough borough.

Just before 7.20am a black Nissan Navara 4x4 vehicle crashed into a ditch in Seamer Moor Lane, about half a mile from the A170. Its occupants, a man and small child, escaped unhurt.

At 9am, an ambulance overturned in the snow on the A171, near to the Harwood Dale turn-off. No-one was injured in the ambulance which was not believed to have been carrying patients. And later a Vauxhall Astra skidded off the road into a ditch on the A169 near Sleights. No-one was injured.

Chief Inspector Simon Lovell, of the main police control room, said: “On the whole, the majority of motorists that ventured out drove sensibly but it is inevitable that some collisions will occur. We are hopeful that conditions will improve later today but, in the meantime, our advice is to not drive unless absolutely necessary.”

Search and rescue teams were on standby to help stranded motorists. A total of 30 gritters and snow-clearing vehicles were out on roads across the Scarborough area – two from the borough council in the town and a further 28 county council vehicles across the rest of the borough – to make sure the worst of the snow was cleared from as early as 5am yesterday.

Nick West, North Yorkshire County Council’s area highways manager, said gritters were out “pre-salting” on Wednesday night as a precaution and would have spread more than 1,000 tonnes of rock salt. The authority has 12 gritters and also used 16 “farmer contractors” who have high powered tractors which can be used as snow ploughs.

He said: “The snow didn’t really start until 7am so between 7.30am and 8am the roads were reasonably passable. As far as I know things are now easing off but we will keep on gritting and ploughing as long as necessary.”

Some bus services were cancelled. First TransPennine Express ran a normal train service but passengers were advised to check journey details before leaving.

Scarborough Council suspended most bin collections on safety grounds and no vehicles were operating across the borough yesterday morning.