School closures and hazardous roads as snow sweeps north Scotland

A car was seen crashed in Aberdeen on Wednesday morning

Dozens of schools have been closed and travel warnings are in place after snow swept across northern parts of Scotland.

Nineteen schools in Aberdeenshire and 20 in the Highland Council area were shut for the day. Several schools and nurseries in Shetland and three in Moray were also closed.

Drivers faced difficult road conditions, with the A9 at Dunbeath in Caithness closed due to a jack-knifed lorry. It later re-opened in the afternoon.

A yellow warning for snow and ice in the north of the country remains in place until Thursday night.

A snow plough in action in Elrick, Aberdeenshire

Drivers in Aberdeen faced difficult conditions and long queues at morning rush-hour.

Motorists have been urged to drive with care. One car was photographed crashed into a lamppost.

Police said the snow gates at the Lecht on the A939 and at the B974 Cairn o' Mount road had been closed.

More than a quarter of schools across Shetland were closed, including the High School in Brae along with the Junior High School in Aith.

Primaries were also shut at Lunnasting, North Roe, Ollaberry, Urafirth, Nesting and Mossbank.

Snow covered the streets and cars in Auchleven in Aberdeenshire

Last week, Scottish transport operators outlined their winter resilience plans.

This included stocking up on 497,000 tonnes of salt - more than was used for the entirety of last winter - and preparing 240 gritters to undertake salt spreading and snow ploughing patrols of the trunk road network.

So far, November has been considerably milder than previous years.

The coldest night since March was recorded on Saturday when temperatures dropped to -7C in Tulloch Bridge in the Highlands.

Typical overnight temperatures at this time of year range from 2C in Scotland to 5C in the south of England, but they rarely fell into single figures during the first week of November this year.

Temperatures below -10C were recorded in some parts of northern Scotland last November, including Braemar in Aberdeenshire which reached a low of -11.2C.

Snow also arrived in Shetland