Beast with a sting in its tail
Fresh snow brings more transport woes – as rain causes flooding misery
FRESH snowfall caused more transport chaos yesterday with blocked roads, cancelled trains and grounded flights.
Hundreds of cars ground to a halt on a busy motorway after an HGV slipped on ice and crashed.
Vehicles queued on the M77 near Newton Mearns, Renfrewshire, yesterday afternoon following the accident.
The traffic then meant snow ploughs struggled to reach areas in need.
Nearly a foot of snow lay in places, forcing councils to close snow gates.
Communities recovering from last week’s Beast from the East blizzards that escaped further heavy snowfall were instead hit by rain and flooding.
Some places received a week’s worth of rain in three hours.
The Met Office said half an inch fell in Leuchars, Fife, between 9am and noon – a quarter of the 2in expected for all of March. Three-quarters of an inch fell in six hours in Craigston, Aberdeenshire.
Last night, eight open-ended flood alerts were in place along with one red flood warning.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) urged those living near rivers and streams to barricade their homes with sandbags.
A burn in Rosyth, Fife, burst its banks yesterday morning, covering streets in 2ft of water.
Teachers at the local Park Road Primary School had to carry pupils out of the building, while parents were filmed wading inside to rescue youngsters. More heavy rain is likely today, with snow on higher ground.
SEPA duty flooding manager Marc Becker said: ‘Flood alerts have been issued for many eastern, central and southern parts. Smaller watercourses in parts of east Scotland in particular may rise due to melting snow.’
Yesterday, there were weatherrelated delays on the M90, M8, M9 and Edinburgh City Bypass, while snow gates were closed on the A939 between Cock Bridge and Tomintoul, Banffshire. Police urged drivers to avoid the A92 between Dundee and Montrose due to snow. The road also flooded at Marykirk, Aberdeenshire. Drumalbin, Lanarkshire, was covered with 10.5in of snow, the Met Office said.
There was ‘severe’ rail disruption. Flooding between Edinburgh Park and Linlithgow delayed or cancelled 31 services on the Glasgow to Edinburgh line through Falkirk High.
Six services between Edinburgh and Dunblane, Stirlingshire, were also hit, while six services were disrupted between Edinburgh and North Berwick.
Dozens of flights were called off or delayed at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports. The Siberian conditions of the past week have left many communities cut off – residents of Buckieburn, Stirlingshire, were rescued yesterday as JCBs got through a wall of ice.
But some welcomed the snow – three climbers were filmed scaling Britain’s second-highest waterfall after it froze. The 400ft Steall Falls in Inverness-shire has not completely frozen since 2010, said one of the trio, Dave MacLeod, of nearby Roybridge.
Looking ahead, meteorologist Martin Bowles said: ‘Friday looks like being the driest day of the week. A deep depression will bring snow to parts of Scotland during Saturday.’
‘Flood alerts have been issued’