Arctic blast means north east 'cut off' from rest of the country

STV

North east Scotland is still isolated from the rest of the country after roads linking the area with the central belt were closed.

Forecasters have been warning there is no sign of a let-up in the icy conditions, with several more centimetres of snow continuing to fall in and around Aberdeen in the coming days.

Parts of the north east have been worst hit by snow, with more than 16in (40cm) falling in parts of Aberdeenshire including Huntly, Keith and Fraserburgh. Police have advised people to stay indoors for all but essential travel.

Aberdeen airport has suffered delays after snow-clearing and de-icing.

Aberdeenshire Council road crews are once again out in force continuing a road treatment programme across Aberdeenshire. Work is continuing to keep roads across the north-east open and gritted as the cold weather continues across the country.

A total of 55 gritters with blades, 6 snowploughs, 46 footpath gritters, 34 farmer’s snowploughs and 22 diggers have been in operation overnight and from 5.30am on Monday. The lowest temperature overnight was -3.8 OC at Ballater.

All Aberdeenshire schools were fully or partially closed due to the adverse weather. Aberdeen City Council has partially closed six. Moray Council closed 46 schools and Clackmannanshire closed 11.

Roads currently closed are the B976 Crathie to Gairnside, the B974 Cairn o Mount, the A939 Cockbridge-Tomintoul and the A939 Ballater-Corgarff.

There were fresh falls of snow overnight in all areas. Strichen, Mintlaw, Oldmeldrum and Inverurie areas saw two to eight centimetres while areas around Banchory, Aboyne and Huntly had five to eight centimetres.

All roads are affected with either snow or ice and road surface temperatures stayed below freezing through the night. Conditions are expected to remain the same throughout the weekend with further snowfalls expected in all areas.

Meanwhile, in the surrounding areas affecting motorists on route to and from Aberdeen the A9 was closed between Perth and Stirling and  the M90 shut from Perth to Kinross.

The A93 at Spittal of Glenshee was also closed again for a second day. Newsagents' shelves were left empty as delivery lorries were unable to get newspapers to the area.

Health chiefs in Grampian were forced to cancel all out-patient appointments due to the snow.