Amber warning from Met Office as parts of Scotland brace for heavy rain

An amber warning for heavy rain has been put in place for parts of Scotland from Friday evening until Sunday morning, as we are warned to expect widespread disruption.

While a yellow warning was already in place for most of the country, that has now been upgraded to the more severe amber warning for parts of the central belt, as well as areas in the Grampian and Highlands regions.

SEPA also has a number of alerts in place, with the downpours likely to lead to flooding across the country, and Transport Scotland is warning road and rail journeys are also likely to be severely impacted.

What does the amber warning mean?

This is what the Met Office is telling people to prepare for as a result of widespread and very heavy rain between Friday evening and Sunday morning:

• Homes and businesses flooded and damage to some buildings

• Danger to life from fast flowing or deep floodwater

• Delays or cancellations to train and bus services

• Spray and flooding leading to difficult driving conditions and some road closures

• Some communities cut off by flooded roads

• Power cuts and loss of other services to some homes and businesses

Which areas will be impacted?

While a much larger parr of the country is covered by the less severe yellow warning, these are the regions and local authorities affected by the amber warning:

Central, Tayside & Fife

• Angus

• Clackmannanshire

• Falkirk

• Fife

• Perth and Kinross

• Stirling

Grampian

• Aberdeenshire

Highlands & Eilean Siar

• Highland

Strathclyde

• Argyll and Bute

• East Dunbartonshire

• East Renfrewshire

• Glasgow

• Inverclyde

• North Ayrshire

• North Lanarkshire

• Renfrewshire

• West Dunbartonshire

“A significant amount of rain on the way”

Danny Chalmers, Head of Communications at Transport Scotland told Clyde 1 News: “We’ve already had a wet weekend behind us, so parts of the country are already saturated, and now the Met Office is predicting a significant amount of rain on the way from Friday evening to Sunday morning.

“SEPA colleagues have been in touch and they’ve made us aware of some concerns about the potential for some notable flooding in parts of Scotland. The main area of concern at the moment is around Argyll, the Trossachs, North Glasgow, Perthshire and the southern Highlands.”

While the advice is only to travel if it is necessary, Danny has this advice for anyone who does need to drive during the worst of the rain: “As we know from heavy rain, it causes reduced visibility and surface water, and it means that you need to factor in longer for breaking distances and keep longer distances between the car in front of you as well.”

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