Fresh snow falling on icy roads created the perfect cocktail for gridlock in the Granite City yesterday.
Commuters travelling to Aberdeen from the suburbs and surrounding shire had to endure lengthy delays as traffic ground to a near standstill on key routes.
Queues formed on the A90 from the south and north and the A96 from the west.
Grampian was the coldest place in Scotland yesterday, with early morning temperatures dropping to a low of -12C in Braemar.
Fresh snowfall on routes already affected by ice caused hazardous driving conditions.
The A944 Alford-Aberdeen road was gridlocked between Kingswells and Westhill, as was the North Deeside Road in Peterculter.
The A96 Aberdeen-Inverurie road and the A90 Dundee-Aberdeen route were also slow-moving into the city, and a lengthy tailback formed between the Murcar roundabout on the A90 and Bridge of Don.
The B974 Cairn O’Mount road remained closed because of snow and ice.
Roadworks at Milltimber added to the delays, with some drivers reporting two-and-a-half hour journeys between Banchory and Bieldside.
Sandhaven School near Fraserburgh was closed to pupils, while transport services to 12 others in Aberdeenshire were not operating.
North-east bus services were also affected by the heavy traffic, with Stagecoach sending out additional buses to compensate for delays.
A spokeswoman for the transport giant said: “Dangerous driving conditions and heavy traffic in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire caused severe disruption across the Bluebird network.”
A First Aberdeen spokeswoman said: “Due to the adverse weather, there have been some delays as we’ve endeavoured to move people around safely.”
Aberdeen Met Office’s duty forecaster, Peter Sloss, said the poor road conditions would continue throughout the next few days.
He added that temperatures “barely crept up to freezing” in rural Aberdeenshire yesterday.
Mr Sloss said temperatures would drop to a low of -8C in parts of the shire today but that the weather would be drier than over the past few days.
He said: “On the coast, Aberdeen will dip down a bit below freezing overnight. Cold enough to get some icy stretches.
“There’s not going to be any thaw in the next 24 hours.
“But there’s milder air coming across the Atlantic at the end of the week. It will be less cold compared to what we have just now.
“We’ll get cold spells right through the next two to three days.
“It’s dry through to the end of Thursday then there’s some rain and sleet from the west, not amounting to much in this part of the world.
“There’s some sunshine on Wednesday and Thursday, but obviously it’s still cold.”
