Severe weather warning as snowy showers combine with strong winds to disrupt transport
The Met Office issued a severe weather warning for Shetland again tonight with more snowy showers and strong winds combining with temperatures as low as -2°C.
Ten schools were closed either this morning or at lunchtime and some children attending those schools that were open faced revisions to their normal transport arrangements.
At Sumburgh airport icy conditions forced the runway to close for over an hour, causing the cancellation of the arriving Edinburgh and Kirkwall flights in the morning and the departing Glasgow and Edinburgh in the afternoon.
A flight to Kirkwall departed later and the afternoon flight from Glasgow arrived normally, though with slight delays.
On the roads, gritters have been out working to clear the snow and most main roads are expected to be passable with care, although some side roads may be blocked.
All SIC youth clubs were cancelled tonight, as well as many other scheduled night classes and meetings.
This evening snowy showers are expected to lessen, though longer dry clear spells will allow icy conditions to develop.
There will be strong north-westerly winds, though these will also ease and overnight there will be some rain and sleet, and snow at times with temperatures around a minimum of -1°C.
Louise Wood
I travelled from Lerwick to Walls last night (Jan. 8) on the 5 o’clock bus. We left on time and passed through Wiesdale at 6 pm. This gives you an idea of the horrendous conditions the driver was coping with. He was nothing short of a hero when he delivered his passengers safely to Walls. Every bus driver who was out last night making sure we all got home safely should be highly commended! They were the stars of the dreadful weather last night.
Ian Pearson
Not impressed. I live in Edinburgh. It took a delivery driver 3 hours to travel 1 mile to my local shop!! That’s real tough going!!
Andrew Gibson
We were flying in from Inverness via Kirkwall on a delayed flight last night (9pm) and had to circle overhead for about 20 minutes because the runway had just had a fresh dumping of snow. Any longer than 30 minutes and we would have had to return to Kirkwall, because of insufficient fuel.
I wish we had because the roads were treacherous. I finally stopped after 5 miles and decided to sleep in the car as it was too dangerous to keep going. A friend of mine came to my rescue with her husband, collected and took me home in their car. They even stopped on the way to dig another car out of the deep snow that had skidded off the road.
Appalling and very dangerous conditions, but beaten by two amazing generous people.
Thank you to the Grahams!