UK weather live: Ice warnings issued across country as Britain braces for Storm Goretti to bring heavy snow

A yellow warning for snow and ice is in place all day on Wednesday in northern Scotland, with residents there told to expect a further 5-10cm of snow.

Temperatures are expected to drop as low as minus 6C in parts of rural Scotland and just below freezing more widely overnight, the Met Office said.

In England and Wales, a yellow warning for ice will be in place until 10am. The same warning will apply in Northern Ireland until 11am.

The Independent’s reporter Harry Cockburn reports:

Network Rail Scotland (NRS) used a snow plough to clear up the tracks near Dingwall.

In a post on X, NRS said the plough was being used to deal with snowdrifts and deep snow up to 1.2m deep in areas of the track.

Hundreds of schools in northern Scotland were shut for a second day on Tuesday as the snowy weather caused travel disruptions.

Similarly schools in Shetland, Orkney and Aberdeenshire remained shut on Tuesday.

This comes after pupils already enjoyed an extra day of holiday on Monday following the festive break due to the icy conditions, while most in Moray and the city of Aberdeen are also closed.

Schools in the Highlands are due to reopen on Wednesday, though more snow is expected on Tuesday afternoon.

Aberdeenshire council have declared a “major incident” as ongoing snow continues to cause travel disruptions and school closures.

The local authority said treating it as a major incident enabled it to “focus attention on the emergency response, prioritise and reallocate staff and resources, and work efficiently with partners to protect life”.

A Met Office amber warning covers much of Aberdeenshire and the north east of Scotland until 7pm on Tuesday.

Snowy conditions in the region are expected to continue throughout Wednesday, with a yellow warning for snow and ice in place all day across northern Scotland, and a yellow warning of ice in the rest of the country until 10am.

A yellow warning of snow and ice is also in place as far south as Perth until midnight on Tuesday.

Aberdeenshire Council declared a major incident as the region deals with ongoing heavy snow.

Police Scotland have commented that the impact of the snow is likely to be felt over the next few days in the north and north-east of Scotland, and they have urged people to follow travel advice.

Assistant chief constable Alan Waddell said: “Local resilience partnerships are continuing to meet to co-ordinate and deliver the response to disruption experienced by communities in the north and north-east of Scotland following heavy snowfall over the weekend.

“We have been working closely with resilience partners across local authorities, other emergency service partners, transport partners, NHS and health and social care partnerships, and other local organisations to support communities affected by adverse weather and keep public services open where possible.

“Some services may be impacted by adverse weather and I would encourage the public to check on neighbours or relatives, if they are able to do so safely.”

Ministers met police, local authorities, utilities companies and other bodies on Monday to discuss recovery efforts and to prepare for further snow and ice warnings.

Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern said last night weather was “extraordinary for modern standards.”

He explained “these kinds of temperatures in these kinds of places and the kinds of snow depths we’ve been seeing have been noteworthy for our modern climate.

“They wouldn’t perhaps have stood out in the 1980s, but last night we saw lows”.

He referenced the lowest temperature was recorded in Marham, Norfolk as opposed to where you would expect the coldest temperature to be in Scotland or Norther Ireland.

Several regions had a temperature below minus 10 C, even “the typically balmy spots of Southern England, for example, Bournemouth, minus eight and a half celsius”, he said.

He added: “The reason East Anglia and the South East were the coldest spots last night is because they stayed clear for longest. Parts of Scotland would have been much colder because of the widespread snow cover, had the wind and rain and snow not picked up later.”