Heavy rain brings flooding disruption

Heavy rain is creating hazardous driving conditions in many areas, with numerous roads hit by flooding.

Police Scotland said that the North East and east coast have been particularly affected, and urged motorists to drive carefully.

There were numerous flooded roads between Stonehaven and Arbroath while many routes throughout the North East are affected by heavy surface water and areas of flooding which are creating "hazardous" driving conditions, police said.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has issued two flood warnings and eight flood alerts for eastern, southern and west Central Scotland.

A Met Office yellow warning of rain and snow for Grampian, Central, Tayside and Fife and the Highlands and Islands is in place until 11pm on Tuesday.

Forecasters said that a spell of persistent rain, with snow mainly affecting high ground, will continue to affect much of northern and eastern Scotland into the evening.

They warned that the rain, combined with snow melt, may lead to some surface flooding of roads.

Earlier in the day fresh snowfall brought more travel disruption to Scotland with delays on major roads.

Congestion was reported across the central belt with the busy M8, M80, M74 and M77 motorways affected by sleet and snow during the morning rush hour.

It comes as the country was largely returning to normal after "the Beast from the East".

People were last week told not to drive from Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning across the central belt, with the travel network largely paralysed due to heavy snow.

Most schools reopened on Monday after three days of closure.

Trains have reported a near-normal operation but some services have been hit by flooding.

The latest weather front is expected to work its way north throughout Tuesday.

Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern said: "An easterly wind is still bringing relatively cold air and that means the prolonged rain moves from northern England into southern and central Scotland and by the afternoon it's eastern Scotland that bears the brunt of that rainfall.

"A rain and snow warning is in effect because the rainfall could accumulate 20mm to 30mm or so and at lower levels we're expecting another 20 to 30cm of snow over hills above 400m so it could cause issues."