Scotland weather: Amber weather warning causes disruption to travel across Scotland

The Met Office warned the most severely impacted areas could endure a month’s worth of rain in a day.

A number of public transport services were cancelled in Scotland with an amber weather warning in place over the weekend.

A yellow weather alert for wind covering much of the Highlands, Argyll and Bute, Stirling and Perth and Kinross was issued for Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday saw west-southwesterly winds reached gusts above 50 mph with Dumfries, Galloway, Lothian, Borders and parts of northern England also being affected.

An amber weather warning has been extended as public transport across Scotland is heavily disrupted due to heavy downpours (pic: Lisa Ferguson/The Scotsman)

A separate yellow weather alert for rain was in place for the Highlands, Central, Tayside and Fife and Strathclyde between 6pm on Saturday through to midnight on Sunday.

An amber warning for rain was also issued for Sunday and was in place until 6pm.

It had been extended until 6am on Monday but this was later updated by the Met Office to reflect the heavy rain ceasing a bit earlier than forecasted.

Meteorologists warned the most severely impacted areas under the amber warning were likely to endure a month’s worth of rain in a day.

The blustery, wet weather led to a number of public transport services being cancelled.

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Network Rail Scotland introduced speed restrictions on train travel across several of its routes because of the weather.

These were put in place on the Highland Mainline, West Highland Line, Wick, and Kyle lines until 3pm on Sunday, with some parts of the line having speed restrictions extended to Monday at 9am.

The Oban and Mallaig routes were also affected.

A speed restriction is also in place on the Inverness/Aberdeen line between Inverurie and Huntly until Monday morning.

The rail operator warned passengers to check before travelling and to expect some delays.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, ferry operator CalMac announced the cancellation of several of its services, warning of possible disruption to other services.

Scotrail has also cancelled some services, and warned the public to take care when travelling as rainfall worsens.

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The Met Office on Saturday warned certain areas may suffer power cuts, while some communities may be completely cut off.

Sepa issued a flood warning in Strath Oykel, while flood alerts were issued in Caithness and Sutherland, Argyll and Bute, Easter Ross and Great Glen, Skye and Lochaber, and Wester Ross.

Speaking on Sunday's forecast, Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey reported: "We're also going to see some very strong and significant downwind gusts as well. Potential for gale strength gusts across much of northern England and Northern Ireland and into Scotland as well.

"40, 50, 55mph gusts so a very windy and blustery day that will take the edge off the feel of things."

Despite the high winds and heavy rainfall in some areas, Sunday was recorded as being exceptionally mild.

A temperature of 14.6C was recorded at Tain where the normal average daytime maximum in December is usually about eight degrees lower, at 6.6C.