Scots have woken up to unusual winter wonderland as a late-spring Arctic chill swept across the country last night.
Several inches of snow fell across mainly high parts of Scotland, with some rare flurries descending on lower areas.
The overnight blanket of the white stuff is just the latest in what has been a bitterly chilly start to the month of May.
Met Office experts issued out a yellow weather warning for the north and central areas of the country late last night.
The warning has been in place since 3.45am this morning and will continue until 11am.
Forecasters say that up 6cm on snow could have fallen in some parts of the country during that seven hour period of adverse weather.
A notice on the Met Office website reads: “An area of snow and rain is currently extending southwards from the Highlands and Grampians to reach the Central Belt towards dawn, will be turning more showery in nature by mid to late morning as snow level becomes confined to highest roads.
“Accumulations of snow up to 3cm below 150m and 6cm over higher roads is possible.”
And the conditions are clearly resulting in chaos for commuters, with Traffic Scotland urging people to drive carefully this morning.
Pictures published on the Traffic Scotland Twitter page show a white out across some Scots roads this morning.
Meanwhile pictures taken from the A720 and M8 displayed heavy snowfall near Edinburgh just after 6am.
Footage from the A9 at Slochd and Daviot in the Highlands showed the dangerous conditions as snow builds up on the road.
The conditions are hardly ideal for Scots casting their vote in today’s Holyrood election.
Millions are expected to pile into polling stations across Scotland as the public are asked to shape the Scottish Parliament for the next five years.
Forecasters anticipate more adverse weather to hit Scotland next week, as the Met Office is predicting snow, hail and thunder to rock the country.
