Dundee University is only one of several that have had to cancel. Its celebrated Christmas lecture which was to have featured the novelist Alexander McCall Smith (right) has had to be postponed though the author has agreed to rearrange the event and visit at the earliest possible convenience.

But if Dundee disappoints its public temporarily in the literature stakes, it certainly consoles them with the visuals.

Dundee University's Satellite Receiving Station NEODAAS  (and well worth a visit) has captured a striking image of how the snow of the past week has affected the UK, offering a virtual whiteout across the entire country on the image that was received today from the NASA satellite Terra.