Scotland's weather: New snow warning as schools stay closed in Aberdeenshire for fourth day

A yellow warning, in force until noon on Thursday for everywhere but Shetland, is expected to bring up to another 5cm of snow after ice develops again widely overnight.

A further yellow warning will follow from 8pm on Thursday to noon on Friday, affecting the whole of Scotland apart from the south west and parts of the west coast.

The Met Office said further warnings were likely to be issued “for the continued wintry conditions”.

Temperatures fell to -14.7C at Tomintoul in Moray on Wednesday night and are expected to dip to -12C or lower in snowy areas.

South of the Border, amber warnings have been issued for Thursday night as Storm Goretti blows in, for snow in central England and Wales, and strong winds in Cornwall.

All 254 schools and nurseries in Aberdeenshire were closed again on Thursday along with 190 in Highland and several in Moray.

A Met Office spokesperson said: “Ice will develop fairly widely into Thursday morning, with partially thawed lying snow refreezing readily.

“In addition, wintry showers across Orkney and north east Scotland will slowly clear away to the east, whilst a new band of mainly light rain, sleet and snow will arrive from the west.

“Snow will fall to low levels at first away from coasts before becoming confined to ground above around 300m.

“1-2cm of fresh snow accumulations are possible in places, with 2-5cm on ground above 200-300m, mainly in western Scotland and hills in northern England.”

For the second yellow warning overnight on Thursday, the Met Office said: “Ice is expected to form widely again as surfaces refreeze through the evening and overnight.

“Scattered wintry showers will move inland across parts of northern England and eastern Scotland this evening and overnight into Friday.

“Showers may lead to some further modest snow accumulations of a few cms inland and over higher ground.”.

Highland Council said the A836 Lairg to Tongue road was shut due to drifting snow at Crask and north of Altnaharra.

Traffic Scotland said the snow gates remained shut on the A93 between Spittal of Glenshee and Braemar, on the A939 between Cock Bridge and Tomintoul, and the B974 at Bridge of Dye.

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Network Rail reopened the Inverness-Kyle line on Wednesday afternoon after snowploughs had spent several days clearing drifts up to 1.2m (4ft) deep.

There is also ongoing disruption to the Inverness-Wick/Thurso line.

KLM flights between Scottish airports and a major European hub for onward connections were badly disrupted.

The services to and from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen were among more than 700 flights cancelled on Wednesday at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam due to poor weather.

Residents in a village in Aberdeenshire which is battling 30 cm of snow have said it has been “one of the worst winters in 25 years”.

Doug Griffin, 58, has lived in Insch in Aberdeenshire for 25 years described the weather conditions as “remarkable” and “exceptional”.

He said that while residents are used to snow, the drifts on Wednesday were currently 30cm deep, and had been higher on Tuesday before they thawed.

Mr Griffin, a father-of-two, said that on Tuesday the drifts had been around 50cm deep.

He said that a snow plough had cleared the entrance to the local Co-Op, which he photographed on Tuesday evening with piles of snow reaching almost to the roof.

Mr Griffin told a PA reporter: “It has been a long time since we have had anything like this, it is very different here.

“We moved up to the north-east 25 years ago, the first winter was quite bad, 2010 was quite bad, but this might be the worst.

“I was going round to the Co-Op to get some stuff, and it took my breath away.

“They ploughed the road, I think they had cleared some of the car park.

“I think there’s about 30cm of snow lying everywhere at the moment.

“It is slightly wetter today, and I think some of the snow in Aberdeen has gone.

“At my front door, the depth is about 30cm. We are snowed in, we have not been able to get out of the village for a few days.”

He said that a snow plough had cleared the road on Monday, but that delivery lorries struggled to reach the village due to being around two miles from the A96, and compared the situation at the local supermarket to the food shortages during the pandemic.

Mr Griffin said: “The snow is not going away, it is going to be well below freezing. It looks like it may be milder next week.

“There has been nothing like this since 2010, it is quite remarkable. It makes it really difficult to do anything.

“There were people getting frustrated last night because the shop hadn’t stocked up.

“We are not used to it. We do get snow, but it is nothing like this, it is exceptional.

“People are helping each other out, my wife has been to see our elderly neighbours.

“I think it’s a bit like Covid – a lot of the shelves are completely empty.

“Lorries can’t get to the Co-Op as they can’t get to the road.

“Insch is about two miles from the A96 – when they turn into places like this, they can’t get in.

“It has not been the start of the year we would have wanted.”

Two buses carrying school children crashed on icy roads in separate incidents in England on Wednesday.

In Berkshire, emergency services were called to a slip road in Earley, Wokingham, after a collision involving a Reading bus and a school coach.

The South Central Ambulance Service said nine children, the driver of the coach and eight adults from the bus suffered minor injuries.

Meanwhile, Kent Police were called to Chilmington Green in Ashford soon after 8am after a school bus left the road and ended up in a ditch, but there were no reported injuries.

Passengers travelling on Eurostar trains faced severe delays and cancellations due to the poor weather.

The cross-Channel operator said several services on Wednesday were halted between London and Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Paris.