Weather warning

The Met Office issued (at 1214hrs) an Amber Warning of Snow for SW Scotland and Lothian/Borders: Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders, West Lothian, Edinburgh, and Midlothian council areas. This warning is valid from 0300hrs (3am) Tue 13 Dec to 1000hrs (10am) Wed 14 Dec.

Heavy showers will fall as snow over ground above about 100 m, and at times to low levels too. Accumulations of 10 cm or more are possible on hills, and there may also be some slushy accumulations at low levels. As a result some roads will become icy at times.

Very strong winds will accompany the showers at times, notably across Northern Ireland, parts of northern England and southern and western Scotland.

The public should be aware that travel may be disrupted as a result of the bad weather, notably over high ground where a combination of strong winds and snow could lead to temporary blizzard conditions. There is also a risk of interruptions to power supplies.

Local forecast for Dumfries and Galloway:

Stormy this afternoon and at first this evening with wind gusts up to 70mph. Winds will slowly ease through the rest of the evening and night, but remaining windy.

The coming 24 hours will be mostly cloudy with showery outbreaks of rain, hail, sleet and, over higher routes, snow. Road temps will fall a little below zero over higher routes where sleet and snow falls, leading to the risk of ice. Road temps are expected to remain a little above zero elsewhere.

2cm to 5cm snow is possible over the coming 24 hours over higher routes (above 150m to 200m). Any snow which does accumulate is likely to drift in the very strong winds. No significant snow accumulations are expected below this level, although the rain may turn to sleet or wet snow at times.

During severe and extreme weather incidents you can get up to date information on weather, river and road conditions from:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_forecast_warnings.html

http://www.readyscotland.org/

http://trafficscotland.org/

http://www.sepa.org.uk/