WINTER HELL ON THE ROAD
POLICE dealt with 25 road crashes in just one hour amid freezing conditions across Scotland yesterday.
The lowest temperature recorded overnight was -9.8C at Strathallan in Perthshire, the Met Office said.
The mercury dropped to -9C at Glasgow Airport and -8C at Edinburgh Airport.
Police warned motorists to drive carefully in the freezing conditions. At 8am, they tweeted: “Road traffic collision reports are coming in fast this morning ... 25 in the last hour alone.”
The cold snap is expected to ease slightly over the coming days. Ian Robinson, of the Met Office, said: “We’ve started to see a pick-up in wind speed from the south and there should be a cloudy spell of weather coming.
“The very low minimums of the past few days are probably not going to be repeated.
“Generally, minimum temperatures will not be as low due to increasing wind and cloud.”
Although temperatures are set to rise slightly, Glasgow and Edinburgh are still the most likely British cities to experience snow this week.
Bookmakers Coral are offering odds on snow hitting Scotland’s biggest cities at the short price of 1-2.
London is 3-1 against getting snow this week but the bookies have slashed their odds on this January being the coldest on record.
Yesterday’s plunging temperatures led to a weird winter sight on the A702 in the Borders when water thrown on to hedges by passing cars froze into spike-like features overnight.
And thousands of people were left without power in West Lothian for a short time after a car crashed into an electricity pole in Linlithgow.
Most properties were reconnected by about 10.50am.