Scotland's weather: snow and ice alert for drivers

COMMUTERS are being urged to be aware of weather warnings in place for snow and ice.

Drivers warned of snow and ice

The Met Office issued yellow “be aware” warnings covering a prolonged spell of snowfall overnight into this morning.

Covering the majority of the country, around 5cm of snow is expected in many places with up to 10cm on higher ground.

It comes after figures showed this winter has been the wettest on record in Scotland.

Met Office statistics show an average of 756mm of rain fell across the country during December, January and February - the highest on records stretching back to 1910.

The downpours brought severe flooding and led to hundreds of people being evacuated from their homes.

Argyll was the wettest area in Scotland, recording 1055.7mm of rain from December to February 24 - almost double the average of 697.5mm.

Two of the last three years have brought record-breaking levels of winter rain, with this year beating the previous record set in 2013/14 of 744mm of rain.

On the latest bout of snowfall, a Met Office spokesman said: “Showers will turn wintry this evening across the warning area, with the risk of a more prolonged spell of snowfall late in the night and early Wednesday morning.

“This will give a covering of snow with 2-5 cm possible in many places and locally 5-10 cm, these higher accumulations mainly above 100 metres.

“Icy stretches on untreated roads and pavements are also likely to form.

“Please be aware of some difficult driving conditions and the potential for travel disruption into the Wednesday morning rush hour.”

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