A yellow weather warning has been issued for up to 20 areas, with forecasters urging caution for those travelling by road and rail.
It will “take time” for parts of Scotland to fully recover from days of severe weather, a minister has said, as the country braces itself for yet another wintry blast over the weekend. Two winter storms are set to hit parts of the UK this weekend, as the Met Office has put more weather warnings in place.
Starting midday on Friday, a yellow snow and ice warning is in place for multiple regions, continuing until roughly 3pm on Saturday. Then on Sunday, the Met Office cautions that a “band of snow” will move across from the early hours of the morning until 3pm again.
A yellow weather warning has been issued for up to 20 areas, with meteorologists urging caution for those travelling by road and rail. Two additional warnings for more snow have been announced for the weekend.
A band of snow moving over Scotland and northern England could cause more travel delays and disruption. Many schools remained closed for a fifth day on Friday, with heavy snow continuing to disrupt travel in some places.
Snow closed the Inverness-Wick railway line and a number of local roads remain closed. However the main routes in the north and north-east have been cleared.
A Met Office statement on the latest weather alerts said: “Whilst not all areas will be affected, scattered wintry showers will continue to feed inland from the North Sea through Friday afternoon, evening and overnight into Saturday morning. These are likely to give some snow accumulations in places, more especially on hills above 100m elevation where 2cm to 5cm will be possible.
“Ice will be a more widespread hazard, especially overnight as temperatures fall widely below freezing, particularly away from immediate windward coasts.” Ministers, police, local authorities and other bodies met on Friday to discuss the response to the harsh elements.
Justice Secretary Angela Constance said: “As we enter a second consecutive weekend of weather warnings with continued snowfall and cold conditions forecast, I appreciate parts of Scotland are still not back to normal. While progress on recovery by partners continues at pace, I again want to thank the public for their patience and understanding that full recovery takes time.”
She also warned of a possibility of flooding in the north west of the country on Sunday as snow is replaced with rain or sleet. She added: “Taken together, it’s therefore really important for people to continue to plan ahead this weekend and check the range of weather, travel and flooding advice available.”
The north and north east of Scotland have seen several days of “intense” snowfall, ice and sub-zero temperatures which have led to school closures and travel disruption. John Swinney travelled to Aberdeen on Friday to thank gritter operators, transport depot staff, police and other workers helping keep the main road network open and safe.
The First Minister said he wanted to “come to see first-hand the impacts of the winter weather, and to express my thanks to those who’ve worked so hard to keep the transport networks operating and to make sure that support for individuals is available within the community. It has been a really challenging period for everybody and I thank members of the public for their patience and support.”
More than 250 schools remained closed on Friday, including more than 150 in Aberdeenshire, dozens in the Highlands and Aberdeen, and a number in Moray. Many pupils will have had a whole week off school at the start of the new term, though remote learning has been in place.
A total of 278 schools were closed on Thursday across northern Scotland, down from 440 on Wednesday.
