Travel disruption as temperatures plunge to -16.7C

Heavy snowfall and temperatures as low as -16.7C led to warnings of "tough" driving conditions in parts of Scotland.

The Met Office forecast of up to 20cm (8in) of snow in parts of central Scotland. An amber weather warning expired at 21:00.

Transport Scotland said Covid rules meant people should not be travelling unless it was for essential purposes.

The temperature dropped to -16.7C in Altnaharra in Sutherland overnight.

It was the lowest temperature recorded in the UK since December 2010.

The previous low of 2021 so far was -13C at Braemar.

There has been widespread disruption across Scotland, including:

ScotRail said heavy snowfall had caused "significant disruption" on its Edinburgh to Glasgow routes.

The rail company tweeted that it had a "bumpy start" to the day as road conditions delayed staff travelling to work.

Network Rail said it was working to fix a number of points failures, particularly in the Central Belt, and urged people to check before they travelled.

The amber weather warning initially covered Clackmannanshire, Falkirk, Fife, Perth and Kinross, Stirling, West Lothian, East Dunbartonshire, North Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire.

It was later extended to include Dundee and southern Angus, Edinburgh, the Lothians and northern Borders.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said all Covid vaccinations were going ahead as planned despite the travel difficulties.

However, the Caird Hall vaccination centre in Dundee had to close early on Tuesday evening due to the poor weather conditions.

NHS Tayside said the vaccination team would contact the remaining people to rearrange their appointments and apologised for any inconvenience caused.

There is also a yellow warning of snow in place for much of the rest of Scotland until late on Wednesday night. The warning extends from Shetland and down the east coast of Scotland.

Transport Scotland said road temperatures, including wind chill, dropped to -18C overnight at Bannockburn.

Spokesman Stein Connolly said: "There were temperatures of -7C and -8C throughout the country last night so we had challenges everywhere.

"We've got all the operating companies working in a multi-agency response team - working very closely with the Met Office - and we will be working all day today until we get clear of this."

Bear Scotland said snow showers across the network were "making driving conditions tough".

Midlothian Council said it had redeployed 80 staff from other departments to help clear paths and pavements.

Some parts of Scotland had already seen heavy snowfalls.

Depths of 26cm (10in) were recorded at Aboyne in Aberdeenshire, 18cm (7in) at Aviemore and 15cm (6in) at Loch Glascarnoch, near Garve, in the Highlands on Monday morning.

Braemar Mountain Rescue Team has been helping engineers from energy company SSEN restore supplies in Upper Deeside in Aberdeenshire following power and communication failures caused by heavy snow.

The wintry conditions are associated with cold air from Russia and Eastern Europe.

The weather has been nicknamed the Beast from the East Two, following the 2018 Beast from the East which brought widespread snow to Scotland.