Heaviest snow yet will turn Scotland white
● Met Office warns of possible commuter chaos for central belt
The heaviest snow of the winter will turn Scotland white and cause treacherous conditions on the country’s roads.
Forecasters say up to eight inches of the white stuff could fall on higher ground in the Highlands, cutting off communities and stranding drivers in their vehicles.
But while northern parts will feel the worst of today’s weather, the morning commute in the central belt was forecast to bring “additional complications”.
The only good news from the Met Office came in the removal of a 70mph wind warning, which is now deemed to be redundant.
“Almost everyone in Scotland will see snow at some point on Monday,” said Martin Bowles of the Met Office.
“It won’t settle much in lowlyingareasbutabove300mwe can expect ten to 20cm on top of what has already fallen.
“With this volume of snow on higher routes, we expect this to become a significant event.”
A low pressure system coming in from the Atlantic is carrying large amounts of moisture, which will turn to snow as soon as it comes into contact with cold air over Scotland.
The first flurries can be expected from 3am today in the south-west of the country, slowly spreading north-eastwards towards the central belt by morning rush hour.
The snow will turn to rain in southern Scotland by lunchtime but will continue to snow north of Stirlingshire and Perthshire right up until 10pm tonight.
Although the warning is currently coded yellow “be aware”, the “impact” sits high on the Met Office disruption matrix, putting it very close to amber “be prepared”.
Dan Suri, a forecaster at the Met Office, said: “This lowpressure system will bring a lot of moisture into contact with the relatively cold air across the northern half of the UK.
“This brings wintry conditions to an extending from East Yorkshire to North Lancashire across into Northern Ireland and northwards to Scotland.
“For some, snowfall could coincide with the Monday rush hour, bringing additional complications.”
A West Lothian
family escaped when a tall tree crashed on to their blue Ford on Friday just as they were preparing to set off on a family weekend.
The Richards family from Bo’ness had packed their car when they heard a noise which sounded like a “lorry crash” outside. When they went outside, they discovered their car had been destroyed, with branches piercing the windscreen and crushing the bonnet and roof.
The number of flood warnings in force across England and Wales has increased as more heavy rain, galeforce winds and snow is forecast.
A fresh band of heavy rain moved into the south-west of England and Wales yesterday morning – provoking a yellow weather warning for the already-drenched valleys of South Wales.
Forecasters warned flood-hit communities to brace themselves for further bad weather with heavy rain, high winds and snow predicted for today.
Angela Richards said: “My nerves are still shot. We could all have been in the car and it certainly could have been fatal. If my young son had been in the car he would have had some serious injuries from this as his car seat was covered in glass and tree debris.
“As it is, we only have to deal with the mental trauma. My daughter saw the tree fall on to the car too.”
Last night, road maintenance companies were mobilising
for a busy night. Scotland Transerv said that with temperatures falling and snow forecast, 30 gritters would be out overnight.
BEAR North West began their road-clearing duties early, at 2pm yesterday, and said they would have 45 vehicles out on the roads.
Yesterday, some roads and bridges were still feeling the after-effects of strong winds and flooding over the weekend.