Storm Conor brings heavy snow and high winds to Scotland

Parts of Scotland and England have enjoyed an unseasonably warm Christmas, but temperatures now look set to plummet across the UK

Parts of Scotland have been hit by heavy snow and strong winds as Storm Conor engulfs the north of the country.

The boxing day storm put the Highlands and Northern Isles on an amber weather warning, with a lesser yellow alert issued for much of the the rest of Scotland.

The storm appears to be taking a similar path to Storm Barbara, which left around 25,000 homes without power on Friday.

Areas of northern Scotland including Moray and Aberdeenshire were coated in snow on Monday, and extreme wind speeds were recorded on the country's northernmost islands.

The highest wind gust recorded so far was 94mph at Sella Ness on Shetland, with Lerwick seeing speeds of up to 87mph. Orkney was facing peak speeds of 75-80mph.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) had four flood alerts in place on Boxing Day for Caithness and Sutherland, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.

Met Office duty forecaster Matt Roe said: “It's pretty windy elsewhere. We've got around 60mph on the west coast. Elsewhere, it's a pretty blustery day, up to around 40mph, maybe 50mph.

”We've got some fairly heavy showers too and these are falling as snow across central and northern parts of Scotland. There are some fairly heavy snow showers across the Highlands as well.

“It's basically a cold, windy day across Scotland with a mix of everything. There's frequent lightning as well with some of those showers in the north.”

The worst of the wind should have eased by midnight.

There has been some disruption to power supplies, the BBC reported, with more expected as Storm Conor peaks on Monday afternoon.

Supplies were said to be being restored quickly in affected areas and extra staff, equipment and welfare facilities have been put in place.

Transport Minister Humza Yousaf chaired a further meeting of the Scottish government's resilience team on Boxing Day morning.

Despite the extreme weather, the centre of the storm is actually north of the UK, nearer Norway.

Mr Roe explained: “We're on the southern fringe. The southern extent of the strongest winds will be moving eastwards across more northern parts of Scotland during the afternoon.

”The north of Scotland will be feeling the brunt of Storm Conor, particularly the Northern Isles."

The Boxing Day blizzard followed a very mild Christmas Day, which was happily sandwiched between Storm Conor and Storm Barbara.

Dyce in Aberdeenshire recorded a temperature of 15.1 degrees Celsius, just shy of the 15.6 degrees Celsius record registered in Devon on Christmas Day in 1920.

But the weather is set to turn next week across the UK, becoming cold, frosty and, in many places, foggy on Wednesday and perhaps Thursday.

According to the Met Office, the fog is likely to linger across some areas suppressing daytime temperatures.