Met Office issues snowfall warning in yellow alert

● Delays for road and rail travellers expected today

Heavy snow is due to hit large parts of Scotland today with the Met Office issuing a yellow severe weather warning for the north of the country.

Up to five centimetres of snow is expected in many areas with up to 20 centimetres on mountains and high ground, along with high winds, before easing off this afternoon.

The Scottish Avalanche Information Service has warned of the potential risk of avalanches on some of Scotland’s highest mountains. Forecasters warn some roads and railways are likely to be affected, with possible longer journey times for road, bus and train services.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has issued flood alerts for the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.

The Cairngorms and other areas of high ground have had snow falls over the past few weeks. Parts of Aberdeenshire, including around Braemar saw heavy snow this week. The warning comes after heavy rainfall earlier this week caused disruption to rail passengers in the Highlands after three landslides and forced the cancellation of some services. Around 40 tonnes of mud slid down onto the track from an embankment three miles outsideinvernessstationbetween Inverness and Beauly on Tuesday evening.

A passenger train ran over the debris, damaging the train, but no one was injured.

Shortly after, there was a landslip between Garve and Achnasheen on the Kyle of Lochalsh route.

Yesterday morning there was a further landslip around 8am near Wick station, when the top layer of soil came away from an embankment, causing disruption until approximately 10am.

Train services from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh and Wick were affected, with the line blocked between Inverness and Beauly.

Services operated to and from Dingwall, instead of Inverness, on both lines.

A shuttle bus was used to run passengers between Dingwall and Inverness.

The line between Inverness and Beuly was reopened yesterday afternoon.

Railway workers used specialist machinery to clear the tonnes of mud and rocks from the line. It was finally reopened yesterday afternoon.

Scotrail engineers had been sent out to the site Tuesday night but had to wait until daylight yesterday before carrying out a full inspection for any damage caused to the track.