Storm Dylan blows in .. to freeze The Bells off us
Storm set to strike in the run-up to Hogmanay
Batten down the Hogmanay hatches
HEAVY snow brought dangerous conditions to Scotland yesterday – with strong winds predicted to make things worse in the run-up to Hogmanay. Storm Dylan is forecast to move in from the Atlantic tomorrow morning, bringing gusts of up to 80mph and heavy rain or snow ahead of the celebrations.
The Met Office issued a yellow warning for wind from 12am to 3pm that could lead to power cuts and mobile phone coverage outages.
Road and rail journeys could also be affected, with ferries delayed or cancelled and bridges closed.
A Met Office forecaster said there is a “small chance of damage to buildings, with the potential for injuries and danger to life from flying debris”.
It follows yesterday’s wintry scenes which were great fun for kids out sledging but made driving dangerous during the morning rush hour.
The Glasgow area saw the biggest snowfall in the UK, with four inches recorded in Bishopton, Renfrewshire.
Shortly before 9am, Glasgow airport suspended flights for about an hour as snow hit runways and taxiways.
In the west, the snow began falling at about 7am, after many routes had already been gritted.
It affected many motorways in the Greater Glasgow area, including the M74, M73, M8 and M80.
Traffic Scotland cameras showed heavy snowfall on many routes, including the M74 and the M9, but traffic largely kept moving.
There were some delays on the A737 in Renfrewshire when a lorry jack-knifed.
ScotRail reported minor disruption on routes north-west of Glasgow because of signalling problems.
Temperatures fell across the country, with -12.3C recorded overnight at Loch Glascarnoch in the Highlands.
Trunk roads such as motorways and routes connecting towns and cities are the responsibility of Transport Scotland and their contract firms, while councils look after local roads.
Roads contractors Bear, who maintain roads in the north-west, said they had eight patrol vehicles and 11 spreaders out patrolling their network to carry out extra treatments when required.
Another firm, Amey, said they had 27 gritters and eight tractors carrying out snow clearance and gritting.
As gritting got under way again last night, a Met Office yellow “be aware” warning was in place for snow across central and southern Scotland.
A yellow warning for ice was also issued for most of Scotland and northern England until noon today.
It means fans travelling to watch Celtic play Rangers at Parkhead in the 12pm match could face hazardous conditions.
There were minor delays to some west coast CalMac services yesterday, with travellers warned to expect further
delays or even cancellations in the coming days.
Travellers heading south to England and Wales also faced poor conditions yesterday.
Snow caused disruption across many roads, with Cumbria Police warning that all routes in the south of the county were affected, as well as the M6.
Highways England urged people to plan their journeys and pack a snow kit of blankets, food, water and a shovel if they really needed to travel.
The RAC said they attended “in the region of one breakdown every 10 seconds” as the bad weather coincided with some people getting back in their cars for the first time since Christmas to go to work or head to the shops.
The AA said they had received 13,284 calls to their breakdown line by 6pm, mostly from people in the north of England, particularly around Cumbria, south of Manchester and the Peak District, who were struggling with the snow or ice.
It followed 16,000 calls on Thursday and 19,000 on Wednesday, making it “an incredibly busy three days,” AA president Edmund King said.
He added: “Our patrol force has been out in record numbers.
“Hopefully the weather will now let up slightly in terms of temperature although there is still a major concern due to the amount of standing water on many roads and more rain and wind on the way.
“It looks like being a wet and windy end of the year on the roads.”
In Hampshire, a house in East Boldre lost a gable end to gusts in excess of 70mph. The Met Office said it could have been caused by a tornado.
Despite this week’s big freeze, the UK had its the fifth warmest year since records began in 1910.
The average temperature in 2017 will be warmer than 2015 and 2016 but it is anticipated to be cooler than 2006, 2007, 2011 and 2014.
Provisional figures suggested that although the UK has seen snow, widespread hard frosts and plunging temperatures this month, the mean UK temperature for December was likely to be 0.4C above the 1981 to 2010 long-term average.
The Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre said all nine of the warmest years since 1910 have occurred since 2000.
The warmest year on record was in 2014 when the mean temperature was 9.91C, 1.06C above the 1981 to 2010 long-term average.
The mean UK temperature for 2017 is expected to be 9.56 C or 0.72C above the 1981 to 2010 average.