Big freeze takes hold as snow smothers Scotland

Published on Thursday 3 January 2008 14:45

SNOW hit parts of Scotland today as forecasters predicted the first significant fall of the winter.

The Met Office issued a severe weather warning covering almost the entire country, with heavy snow predicted for much of Scotland.

The Grampian area will bear the brunt of the bad weather, and 20 to 30cm of snow could fall on higher ground.

Snow has already been falling across the eastern half of the country today, from Aberdeenshire to the Borders.

By 9am, Grampian Police had already dealt with two minor road accidents in the Moray area due to icy road conditions.

The snow is expected to get heavier throughout the night across central and eastern Scotland.

Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen could see up to 15cm of snow by the morning, forecasters said, but this is likely to melt during the day tomorrow.

Forecasters predicted that snow showers would fall across inland areas today and would be heavier on higher ground such as the north west Highlands and the mountains of Argyll.

Julian Mayes, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the Press Association's weather division, said: "We are already seeing fairly widespread showers across the eastern half of Scotland.

"It is only showers rather than a continuous band of snow and it looks as if this is going to continue throughout the day.

"It could be 20 to 30cm up in the hills."

But forecasters said that the cold weather would not last long, with milder temperatures and rain expected by the weekend.

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