Scotland to be hit with snow as Met Office issue yellow weather warning for Highlands and north east

Further wintry weather is set to hit Scotland as a warning for snow has been issued for parts of the country.

The Met Office said a yellow warning would be in place for parts of the Highlands and north east of the country from midnight on Wednesday until 9am on Thursday.

Overnight showers and longer spells of rain will turn to sleet and hill snow by the morning, with up to 4cm expected to fall in higher areas.

The Met Office warned motorists that roads could be affected by snowfall as well as train journeys.

Icy surfaces could also lead to injuries or accidents, particularly in higher areas.

It comes as parts of the country were hit by heavy snowfall and strong winds on Tuesday.

Scots faced travel description due to the weather, after a lorry overturned on the M74 causing tailbacks of up to an hour.

STV’s Sean Batty said: “Most of the cold air has moved north of the mainland but is still sitting over Shetland and Orkney with further snow over higher ground during Wednesday, so most likely the hills of Hoy will be turning white through the day.

“The cold air will move back south overnight Thursday and into Friday with rain turning more to snow on higher ground – mainly above 300 metres.

“This means spots like Grantown, Ballindalloch and Tomintoul could wake up to snow, along with the higher spots of the A835 in the north Highlands, such as Glascarnoch. At low levels in the north and north east sleet and wet snow will fall, which could give some slushy snow on the grass.

“We stay in the colder air over the coming days with sunshine and showers, mainly in the north and west, which will again be wintry over higher ground. We will also have some very cold night and I expect lows below -5C in the Highlands in the coming nights.

“This colder weather is nothing out of the ordinary for April, with the usual swings between colder and warmer conditions.

“Next week sees a bigger push of warm air coming back in with temperatures possibly back in the mid teens in the Lothains and Borders on Monday.”

Meanwhile in the wake of Storm Arwen, which caused chaos in November 2021, Moray Council has announced an action plan to improve resilience across the area when responding to emergencies.

Yellow, amber and red warnings were issued in Scotland as the storm battered the country, leading to widespread loss of power, disruption to rail and road travel, damage to properties and people left without power or water for several days.

Four areas of focus covering communications, community resilience, care for people and organisational resilience alongside training have been identified and agreed by councillors at a full council meeting.

Following the agreement, Moray Council’s emergency planning officer, Ross Ferguson, said: “Staff, organisations and individuals worked extremely hard to mitigate the devastating effects of Storm Arwen but there are always things for us to learn from incidents like this.

“Work has already started to better prepare our teams for future emergencies, particularly around reviewing our major incident and emergency response protocols, so we can be as prepared as possible to assist communities across Moray should future incidents occur.

“It’s also vital that we’re able to respond in accordance with the Civil Contingencies Act and strengthening our organisation’s resilience, as well as helping communities prepare themselves, is essential to meet those obligations.”