Forecasters have warned of dangerous weather conditions on Thursday and Friday including the possibility of thundersnow.

The Met Office says there could be as much as 10cm of snow falling on the highest ground as well as dangerous icy patches.

There could also be some brief power outages with a risk of lightning strikes from isolated thunderstorms in some coastal districts.

The yellow weather warning is set to be in place at 8pm on Thursday until 11am on Friday, and includes Barrhead and Neilston and the rest of the Strathclyde area. 

The alert also affects the Highlands and Islands; Central, Tayside and Fife; south-west Scotland, Lothian and Borders; and parts of England and Northern Ireland.

As winter begins to bite after a record-breaking mild new year, in the early hours of Thursday temperatures could feel as cold as -4C in Barrhead and Neilston.

Barrhead News:

There is also a separate warning of snow tomorrow, which stretches from the Highlands and into the north of England, avoiding Glasgow and its surrounding areas, including East Renfrewshire.

It warns of disruption to roads and rail transport and says many areas will see one to two hours of snow, with a risk of temporary slushy accumulations above 100-150m.

On higher routes, forecasters have predicted strong winds could lead to drifting and temporary blizzard conditions.

This second alert will be in place from 10am to 4pm.

Grahame Madge, spokesman at the Met Office, said: We have got an area of high pressure across the UK, that will remain in situ until the early hours of tomorrow morning. Then we will start to see the weather front coming in.

"As conditions get cold tonight, we're seeing temperatures drop down to freezing quite widely.

"As we get the cold air, that will bring the temperatures right down, we've got the weather front coming in from the west and that moisture is going to bump into the cold air and where you get that you will get snow."

The forecaster added that the prospect of thundersnow was driven by the same conditions which cause thunder in the summer, the difference in temperature between the ground and the air surrounding it.

Thundersnow is not meteorologically different to thunder in the summer, but rather than hail or rain there is snow which can affect the acoustics of the thunder, the forecaster said.

"Because you have got that differential it's possible, quite easily, for warm air at ground level when it heats up to start to rise very quickly up through the cold air and that's what creates the potential for thunderstorms, so we are likely to see along with the other wintery showers, likely to see hail and snow," he said.

 

 

 

 

In advance of the freezing temperatures, Traffic Scotland has urged people to drive with care because of the risk of ice.