Blizzards caused Boxing Day travel chaos on the north’s busiest road as Storm Conor swept across the region.
A tanker jack-knifed on the A9 Inverness-Perth road at Drumochter at about 11.40am, and blocked one lane of the road for about six hours.
Vehicle recovery was initially sent from Invergordon but high winds prevented any crossing of the Cromarty and Kessock bridges – and a crane was instead sent to recover the lorry.
A police spokesman said this was among several weather-related incidents which caused delays on roads across the Highlands, most of which were minor and involved cars sliding in the snow.
Ferry operator CalMac also continued to experience disruption yesterday during the high winds, but some services were running as normal and more settled weather today should give passengers more certainty.
The Met Office issued a fresh yellow “be aware” warning for ice between 4pm and 9pm last night and an amber “be prepared” warning for high winds ended at 6pm.
Aberdeen Met Office forecaster Matt Roe said more than 2 inches of snow fell in the Aviemore area yesterday, and that several snow showers hit various parts of the region.
The top wind speed was a gust of 94mph in Sella Ness, Shetland, and it also reached 82mph in Kirkwall and 71mph in Stornoway. Inverness Airport recorded a top speed of 51mph.
Mr Roe added: “The rest of the week will be much more steady and many places will be dry, with some patchy rain on the west coast. Temperatures will gradually rise to about 10C and, by the end of the week, they will get up to 13C in the Moray Firth and Inverness area.”
Storm Conor followed a similar track to Storm Barbara, which left around 25,000 homes across the region without power on Friday.
Christmas Day fell between the storms and a number of unusually mild temperatures were experienced across the north and north-east.
But the wind remained strong in the Western Isles and Christmas dinner was late for some people in part of Lewis.
About 200 homes suffered power cuts in the Carloway, Dalbeg and Shawbost districts with strong winds and lightening causing faults on the electricity network.
An SSE spokesman said that about 300 homes were affected in the Tomatin area, but stressed that in most cases power was restored within two hours.
However some homes in Shawbost were still in darkness late on Christmas Day and power cuts also affected the Uig district in Skye. Part of Newmarket near Stornoway was also without electricity yesterday morning.
The spokesman added: “We would like to thank our customers for their patience, particularly given the time of year, as we restored power to homes affected by the extreme weather.”
More settled conditions are expected today for those planning to take CalMac ferried to and from the Western Isles.
CalMac operations director Drew Collier said: “There is no doubt this has been a difficult weekend for our communities, customers, crews and port staff, and we can hopefully look forward to a period of increased certainty for travellers. I remain appreciative of the support and forbearance we have experienced in light of these conditions, which are out of our control but, nonetheless, frustrating.”
