Weather warnings for ice and wind as temperatures set to plummet

Temperatures will drastically fall during the evening, with ice likely forming on untreated surfaces.

Some parts of the country will be hit with strong winds, bringing gusts of up to 75mph, into Wednesday.

The Highlands, Orkney, Shetland, Argyll, and Bute will face the second yellow warning, with gusts likely to reach 50-60mph and 65-75mph possible in some places, especially around exposed coasts.

We’ve had a ridge of high pressure with us over the past 24 hours that has kept things fairly settled, but unfortunately, the rest of this week is looking unsettled and changeable.

Today, a frontal system moves through bringing with it a band of rain. As the rain hits the cold air that is currently over the country it will fall as snow on the leading edge. Most of the snow will fall on ground above 300m, around the western Highlands with 10-15cm likely on higher routes such as the A9 and A82 so despite us not having any warnings in place for the snow, we will see some disruption.

Down to lower levels we could see about 1-2cm on ground below 100m, so only minor accumulations.

The main concern, however, is that once that band of snow and rain moves through, we have clear skies behind it overnight tonight, which could lead to some icy patches on any untreated surfaces. Therefore, the Met Office has issued an ice warning covering most of Scotland from 9pm Tuesday until 10am Wednesday, as there is a belief there could be an increased chance of incidents.

We have a bit of a repeat performance on Wednesday. After a clear and dry start to the day, another band of rain will move through during late afternoon. However, there will also be some extremely strong winds accompanying the rain. A wind warning has been enforced from 4pm Wednesday until 9am Thursday covering the northern and western islands, as we could see gusts up to 70mph around exposed coasts and also widely gusts of between 50-60mph.

Thursday will give us another wet and windy day to come with heavy spells of rain, but Friday promises to be a better day with a slight drop in temperatures but drier and brighter conditions on offer.