Storm Arwen has battered the north and north-east of Scotland today, starting early this morning when some people woke up to wind shaking their windows and snow covering their lawns.
But will it be just as bad for those getting up tomorrow? Here’s what the weather forecast is telling us.
The initial bad news is that one of the messiest Met Office weather warning maps I’ve ever seen is about to get even messier.
If you check out the meteorological agency’s website now and track down tomorrow’s map, this is what you’ll be greeted with:
But let’s zoom in to the area we’re most interested in, the north and north-east of Scotland.
As you can see, there are four separate weather warnings that together, cover the entire region.
There are two yellow warnings, one for wind and one for snow and ice, with the former applying everywhere except the northern Highlands and islands and the latter covering the entire area.
There is also an amber warning for most of eastern Scotland, and a red warning that covers a strip of the east coast including Aberdeen, Peterhead, Fraserburgh and Stonehaven.
But here’s where the good news comes in: by late evening tomorrow, the worst of Storm Arwen will have passed and none of those weather warnings will still be in effect.
The red one is to end at 2am, while the amber and yellow snow and ice warnings should end at 9am and 10am respectively.
The yellow warning for wind will last a little longer, until 6pm.
Big chill forecast
That doesn’t mean the weather will improve dramatically though – temperatures are forecast to stay chilly throughout the weekend.
In Aberdeen, the mercury could drop as low as 2C tomorrow evening, and fall to 1C on Sunday.
Unsurprisingly, things will be even colder in Braemar, which is currently blanketed by snow: in fact, the Met Office is predicting the town won’t go above 0C until Monday afternoon, and could drop to -3C on Saturday night.
In Elgin and Inverness, there is not likely to be much precipitation over the next couple of days, though temperatures will be only slightly above freezing point.
Ullapool and Stornoway are forecast to get some snow tomorrow, while Kirkwall and Lerwick should get rain.