More than 10 inches of snow fell in Orkney overnight, leading to the closure of schools and nurseries.
Several drivers were also stranded amid a Met Office yellow weather warning for snow and ice, which also affected Shetland, the Highlands, Skye, Western Isles, Aberdeen, Moray and Aberdeenshire.
While not unheard of, heavy snow in Orkney is unusual – and deep snow as experienced this morning is rare.
The gulf stream around Orkney brings humid air, keeping the islands much warmer than other places on the same latitude.
This morning, vehicles on the main Kirkwall to Stromness route struggled to get to the early morning ferry to Scrabster.
James MacCulloch, who was driving his works van from Kirkwall to catch the Stromness ferry said: “The snow was coming down fairly heavily overnight and is continuing today.
“We had to stop to fix the windscreen on our vehicle and because we stopped we were then stuck in the snow.
“We were unable to get out of the snow and we did not manage to get to the ferry.
“There are lots of other cars and vehicles in the same position.”
Around eight inches of snow also fell in the Western Isles overnight, with drivers struggling to get their cars out of driveways in Stornoway this morning.
One woman told us: “It was lovely to wake up to snow this morning, but for it to have snowed twice in a matter of weeks feels very unusual.
“It is years since we have had snow twice in one winter.”
The yellow weather warning ended at noon.
A further warning for snow and ice has been issued for Thursday into Friday morning.
The Met Office said: “Snow showers and ice will bring some difficult driving conditions and localised transport disruption.”
