People in the north and north-east have been warned that freezing conditions will continue over the next few days, with parts of the region being blanketed by snow.
The Met Office warned the north-east and Highlands and islands could experience up to four inches of snow in some areas – with lochs expected to freeze as temperatures plummet on the west coast.
Tom Morgan, meteorologist for the Met Office, said: “We’re now going into a disturbed period of weather with more in the way of snow showers coming down from the north, so we have a snow and ice warning for the whole of Aberdeenshire and much of north and eastern Scotland until noon on Friday.
“These heavy snow showers will bring some difficult driving conditions and disruption to travel and we’ll see a fair amount of snow showers.
“We should see about two to five centimetres across much of north-east Scotland and 10 centimetres some places, particularly over high level routes in parts of Aberdeenshire in Moray.
“But even in Aberdeen city we should see about two to five centimetres by the middle of Friday – we’ve got quite a bit of snow to come for some places across the north-east for 24 hours or so.”
The north-west is also in for some “extremely low temperatures” and “severe penetrating frosts” as some areas close to Glencoe plummet to minus 12C overnight.
It is also expected the falling temperatures will freeze any lochs that haven’t already frozen over.
Mr Morgan added: “It’s a very wintry couple of days to come before it turns milder later on the weekend.”
Warnings have been issued as temperatures are forecast to drop to as low as minus 15C (5F) overnight, ahead of a day of possible sleet and snow showers over much of Britain.
A large part of Scotland was hit by a band of snow on Thursday morning which turned into more sporadic showers as it moved into northern England.
A spokeswoman for Moray Council said: “Our roads staff are continuing to monitor the weather conditions around the clock and put into action any treatment plans required.
“We recognise there will be fewer people out and about during lockdown, but for those undertaking essential journeys we encourage pedestrians to take extra care in icy conditions, and motorists to drive to the conditions.”
An Aberdeenshire Council spokeswoman added that gritters would be heading out early this morning.
