Winter alert (again) as heavy snow set to sweep in

WINTER will come roaring back next week, when Scotland faces gales sweeping heavy snow across the country.

Some communities have been told to expect power cuts due to a series of lightning strikes expected to hit the north and west of the country.

For many, it will be a return to the wild weather of New Year, when storms Dylan and Eleanor blew in.

Grahame Madge of the Met Office said: ‘Atlantic weather systems have begun to push high pressure sitting over Scotland out of the way. This will result in a significant change in the weather next week.

‘We will be dominated by polar maritime air feeding down from Greenland and Iceland.’

A yellow ‘be aware’ warning for severe weather begins around 6pm on Monday and lasts for 30 hours, until midnight on Tuesday.

As much as four inches (10cm) of snow is forecast to fall on higher ground, leading to blizzard conditions as drifts are blown around by strong winds.

It is possible two inches (5cm) will fall even at low levels, accompanied by hail, thunder and lightning strikes, particularly in the west.

Areas affected include Central, Tayside, Fife, Grampian, Highlands and Islands, Orkney and Shetland, south-west Scotland, Lothian and Borders and Strathclyde.

Parts of the Highlands have remained ice-bound since before Christmas.

Gardener Lynda MacLeod, 51, of Muir of Ord, on the Black Isle near Inverness, said: ‘I am really worried we are going to lose a lot of plants to the frost. We also keep chickens and they have not been off the coop for three weeks now.’