Snow disrupts roads, flights and schools in Scotland

Work has been taking place to clear runways at Edinburgh Airport

Further snow and ice have brought disruption to roads across Scotland and closed schools in some areas for a third day.

The Forth Bridge reopened for cars at 1500 GMT after being closed for most of the day.

Edinburgh airport is now closed until Thursday morning. Flights from other airports have also been disrupted.

Several councils have shut all their schools, with more than 250,000 pupils across the country missing lessons.

At least 1,500 of the 2,500 schools in Scotland shut on Wednesday.

Glasgow and Dundee were among the areas to introduce blanket school closures.

All state schools in Midlothian, West Lothian and East Lothian are now closed until Monday.

Forecasters predict more snow showers, mainly in the east of the country.

Altnaharra in Sutherland has again set the record for the coldest place, with an overnight low of -20C.

On the roads, conditions were very poor on the Edinburgh city bypass and the M8 was closed at one stage eastbound at Livingston due to a jack knifed lorry, but has now reopened.

There is severe disruption to many rail services.

Poor weather conditions are causing disruption to all East Coast mainline services.

There are no services going to or from Inverness or Aberdeen from Edinburgh.

There are no Scotrail services between Edinburgh and Perth or Dundee.

Rail services are also facing severe disruption, with a reduced service between Glasgow and Edinburgh and services cancelled on the Larkhall-Hamilton to Glasgow line.

BP said the weather was affecting deliveries from the Grangemouth terminal to its petrol stations across Scotland.

"Safety is BP's number one priority, so delivery vehicles are being double-manned and are only leaving the terminal when it is safe to do so," said a spokesman.

"Most of the deliveries that are getting out are in the Glasgow area, where access is better than in the rest of the region."

Transport Scotland said about 1,800 vehicles and 3,500 staff were working round the clock to try to keep roads as free from snow and ice as possible.

Drivers in Edinburgh woke up to more heavy snow

Stewart Stevenson, Scotland's transport minister, said: "The Herculean efforts by all those involved in winter service up and down the country is to be highly commended.

"While this government and its partners are doing all they can, the public must play their part too by ensuring they keep up to date with all the available information and only making essential journeys if the current weather continues."

Three of Scotland's ski centres are now operating and a fourth is expected to be ready by the weekend.

Cairngorm, Glenshee and the Lecht said they have lots of fresh snow, while the Nevis Range aims to open on Saturday - its earlier start to a season for 13 years.

The Scottish Avalanche Service said there was an increased chance of avalanche because it was unusual to have such heavy snow so early in the season.

The councils with blanket school closures are: Angus, Dundee, Midlothian, East Lothian, West Lothian, Clackmannanshire, Fife, North Lanarkshire, Falkirk, Scottish Borders and Glasgow.