Weather: Edinburgh gears up for Beast from the East with yet more wintry conditions forecast

Residents in the Capital can expect to experience some extremely wintry conditions over the next few days as forecasters warn of Beast from the East.

Edinburgh could be hit by severe weather this week.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning across most of mainland Scotland, including Edinburgh, for snow which will come into force at 6pm tomorrow, Thursday, February, 4.

This yellow warning is set to remain in place until midday on Sunday.

Forecasters have warned that the bad weather may cause significant travel disruption including long delays and cancellations on bus, rail and air travel.

They have also warned that power cuts may occur, with rural communities most at risk of this.

A statement on the Met Office website says: “An area of heavy rain and snow over Scotland will slowly move south over the weekend, bringing further snow accumulations, firstly over high ground in the north, but increasingly to low levels through Saturday and into Sunday.

"Strong winds could lead to significant drifting of snow and temporary blizzard conditions.”

An upgraded amber warning for snow covers parts of the Highlands, Grampian, Tayside, Central and Fife, running for the whole of Friday until 6pm on Saturday evening.

Forecasters explained that cold air from Scandinavia, which is sitting across the north of the UK is coming into contact with warmer, moist air pushing in from the southwest Atlantic.

Where these two air masses meet, rain drops turn into snow.

Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist, Mark Sidaway, said: “Into the weekend snow will continue across much of Scotland, and is likely to increasingly fall to low levels before

beginning to move south into northern and eastern England.”

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