Red alert as weather warning issued for Lothians

A RED alert weather warning has been issued for the Lothians and the rest of central Scotland with gales of up to 90mph set to hit tomorrow afternoon.

The alert is the highest level of warning issued by the Met Office and urges the public to take action.

Transport Scotland is urging people to pay attention to police travel warnings.

Police say that conditions for travel between 3pm and 6pm are likely to be extremely poor and significant delays are expected. This could lead to all main road bridges being closed and will have a severe impact on tomorrow night’s rush hour Disruption to power supplies and property is also a strong possibility.

Transport Minister Keith Brown said: “Tomorrow looks set to be a major challenge for our transport system, commuters and the public. I can assure them that a lot of work is already underway to ensure Scotland is prepared for any likely transport disruption caused by severe winds.

“The Scottish Government’s Resilience Room is closely monitoring developments as is Transport Scotland’s Multi-Agency Response Team.”

He added: “Potentially many of our main road bridges could be closed at some point tomorrow afternoon. According to the Met Office the worst period will be from 3-6pm and they are confident that wind speeds will exceed 75 mph. They have issued a red alert, which suggest speeds could even exceed 90 mph. As well as possible bridge closures we need to prepare for blown over vehicles and trees.”