Rail and road problems as temperatures hit new low of -17.1C

Scotland is facing a second day of travel disruption after temperatures continued to plummet overnight.

Altnaharra in the Highlands saw a reading of -17.1C, which was the lowest recorded in the UK since Boxing Day 2010.

Further heavy snowfall and freezing conditions have caused problems on the roads and across the rail network.

A Met Office yellow warning for snow is in place for most of central and eastern Scotland.

Forecasters have warned of similar conditions for the east of the country until the weekend.

Under Covid rules, people should only be travelling for essential purposes, such as work, education, essential shopping and exercise.

In a tweet, Road Policing Scotland described driving conditions as "terrible" after dealing with stranded vehicles on the A720 Edinburgh bypass.

"Before jumping in the car, ask 'is my journey essential?' If it is, drive safe. Slow and steady wins the day," they added.

The travel disruption includes:

More than 10cm (4in) of snow fell in parts of the Borders overnight, according to Jim Fraser, Scottish Borders Council's emergency planning officer.

He urged people to only travel if their journey is essential and added: "The Met Office is continuing to forecast more persistent snow showers across some areas today.

"Our snowploughs and gritters are out clearing our primary road network and will move on to the secondary routes as and when conditions and resources allow."

Met Office meteorologist Clare Nasir said "temperatures will plummet wherever you are" on Wednesday, and strong winds and snow will be "disruptive across many areas".

Temperatures will struggle to get above zero during the day with overnight temperatures expected to drop to -6C and below in exposed areas.

An amber weather warning expired at 21:00 after up to 20cm (8in) of snow fell in parts of central Scotland.

ScotRail said it was experiencing disruption across the central belt on Wednesday morning, with points failures at Newbridge affecting Glasgow-Edinburgh routes.