Fresh weather warnings forecast more snow and ice over weekend

Further weather warnings have been issued as more snow and ice is expected in Scotland at the weekend.

A Met Office yellow warning for snow and ice covers most of Scotland and is active from midday on Friday through to 3pm on Saturday.

On Sunday, a similar yellow weather warning is in place between 2am and 3pm. A band of snow moving over Scotland and northern England could cause more travel delays and disruption.

The latest warnings come as many schools remained closed for a fifth day on Friday, with heavy snow continuing to disrupt travel in some places.

However the main routes in the north and north-east have now been cleared.

The Met Office said: “Whilst not all areas will be affected, scattered wintry showers will continue to feed inland from the North Sea through Friday afternoon, evening and overnight into Saturday morning.

“These are likely to give some snow accumulations in places, more especially on hills above 100m elevation where 2 to 5cm will be possible.

“Ice will be a more widespread hazard, especially overnight as temperatures fall widely below freezing, particularly away from immediate windward coasts.”

The north and north-east of Scotland have seen several days of “intense” snowfall, ice and sub-zero temperatures which have led to school closures and travel disruption.

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney said earlier that efforts are now turned towards recovery.

He said: “The challenge with the snow has been, quite simply, the volume, and we’ve had formidable resources available in the north east and in the Highlands to clear transport routes on the trunk roads and also on the rail network, which is the responsibility of the Government.

“We’ve been working closely with local authorities about snow clearing in their localities.”

More than 250 schools remain closed on Friday, including more than 150 in Aberdeenshire, dozens in the Highlands and Aberdeen, and a number in Moray.

Many pupils will have had a whole week off school at the start of the new term, though remote learning has been provided in many cases.

A total of 278 schools were closed on Thursday across northern Scotland, or around 11% of the school estate – down on the 440 that were shut on Wednesday.

All “priority one” routes in Aberdeenshire and the Highlands are open, but Traffic Scotland confirmed snow gates remain closed on the B974 Bridge of Dye, and many local routes remain affected.

In Aberdeen, Ian Yuill, co-leader of the city council, said that on Thursday there were 17 road gritters out, ploughs, 14 pavement gritters, 90 road staff, around 240 environmental services staff, and 31 diggers hired from contractors all shifting snow and treating roads and pavements.

He told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast on Friday: “It’s a huge job. Our staff can’t be everywhere but they are working incredibly hard, and we have been gritting roads pretty much around the clock since this started.

“One of the challenges that Aberdeen City Council has had is because of the repeated snowfalls, our gritters and ploughs have had to go back time and time and time again to the priority routes in the city, and that has meant they haven’t been able to get on to secondary routes and side roads.

“Hiring these diggers has allowed the council to move snow on side roads and start to tackle that problem.

“There is still a long way to go. There is still an awful lot of snow lying on the streets and pavements of Aberdeen.”

Rail lines around the country have now reopened, with the northern section of the Far North Line between Brora and Wick/Thurso being finally cleared of snow on Thursday evening.

Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop welcomed the news, posting on social media: “Thank you Network Rail Scotland – huge effort in very challenging conditions.”

Aberdeenshire Council declared a major incident on Tuesday, warning of a “good chance” some rural communities would be cut off, as well as the possibility of power cuts.

Ministers attended a meeting of the Scottish Government’s Resilience Room on Thursday afternoon, after which Justice Secretary Angela Constance provided an update on recovery efforts.

“Following five days of amber warnings and hugely challenging snow and ice conditions across northern Scotland, progress to fully recover continues,” she said.

“However, there are yellow weather warnings in place overnight for most of Scotland, and with Storm Goretti set to affect other parts of the UK and a cold but still unpredictable weather picture for Scotland over the weekend, it is clear that impacts will continue to be felt in the coming days.”

Mr Swinney said: “We’ve had a period of really intense and heavy snowfall in certain parts of Scotland, particularly the north east, the Highlands and the Northern Isles and the Western Isles, and the Government has been closely engaged with local resilience partnerships throughout that series of amber warnings, and those amber warnings have gone on for a prolonged number of days.”

He added: “We are, however, thankfully, in a position where we are able to focus more on recovery than dealing with the immediate incident, and that very much is the focus of all local resilience partnerships, and the Government is supporting with the reallocation of resources where that is possible to do so.”

Assistant Chief Constable Alan Waddell, of Police Scotland, said: “We have been working closely with resilience partners across local authorities, other emergency service partners, transport partners, NHS and health and social care partnerships, and other local organisations to support communities affected by adverse weather and keep public services open where possible.

“Some services may be impacted by adverse weather and I would encourage the public to check on neighbours or relatives, if they are able to do so safely.”