Weather warning for west coast and across the north and north-east from Wednesday into Thursday

A weather warning for the north of Scotland has been put in place by Scottish Southern and Electricity Networks (SSEN) for tomorrow and Thursday.

The energy provider said it was preparing for a period of unsettled weather in the region, which could impact on the electricity network.

SSEN’s said it was expecting strong winds, heavy rain and lightning building in the west of Scotland from midday on Wednesday, with gusts of up to 55mph expected in Kintyre, Islay, Mull, Skye and Tiree.

Gusts of up to 65mph are expected

As the low pressure system moves across north throughout the day, strong winds will continue across Aberdeenshire and Moray.

Peak gusts of up to 65mph are expected across Argyll and the north-west Highlands from 8pm on Wednesday, where they are expected to remain strong across the network area overnight before gradually easing by mid-afternoon on Thursday.

A spokesman for SSEN said: “In preparation, we have enacted our well-established resilience plans and are increasing and moving additional resources to key locations in anticipation of any potential damage.

“Our dedicated customer contact teams are proactively contacting customers on our priority services register to offer additional advice and support. We’ll continue to monitor weather forecasts and provide updates if the situation changes.”

SSEN is urging people not to approach any damaged equipment and instead to report it by calling 105 or via their Power Track app and engineers will investigate as soon as possible.

Police in Orkney advising against non-essential travel

Elsewhere, police in Orkney are advising against any non-essential travel due to severe flooding on most roads.

Lovely new waterfall discovered in St Margarets Hope #Orkney really need some sandbags, don't understand why there aren't any kept in the Hope @OIC_Roads @bbcorkney @NewsOrkney @The_Orcadian pic.twitter.com/4NA2OP0yC1

— Kath (@Orkat3) November 1, 2022

Following flooding, roads in Orkney are now open again with the exception of Grainshore Road in Kirkwall, with some only being passable with care.

The A965 road between Kirkwall and Stromness was closed between Zions Loan and Hatston Industrial Estate, with the diversion road (Old Finstown Road) also flooded.

As well as this, the A966 road between Finstown to Evie Road was also flooded and was deemed impassable.