Highland Winter Road Conditions Report - Monday 6 January 2025

6th January 2025

The information provided is a summary of reports from operational staff and is intended to give a general indication of typical conditions in each area at a point in time. It is not intended to imply that any individual route is entirely snow and ice free and drivers must be aware that conditions can change rapidly and make their own assessment of conditions for travelling.

Maps of the Council's gritting routes by priority and policy are available online.

Current Met Office yellow weather warning for snow and ice affecting the Highlands - The yellow warning covering the Highland area currently runs until 12 noon tomorrow. Snow showers will continue for the rest of Monday and into Tuesday morning bringing further accumulations of 2 to 5 cm in places, and 5 to 10 cm above 200 metres across northern Scotland. Showers will initially fall as rain or sleet at lower levels this evening, and across the Northern Isles at times throughout, leading to a risk of icy stretches.

Highland Road Conditions Report for Monday 6 January 2025 are as follows:

Ross and Cromarty East – 08:44 - Negative road surface temperatures across the network with a light dusting of fresh snow at higher ground and icy patches on sections. All route treatment ongoing this morning, along with footpaths.

Sutherland 08:42 - Primary 1 routes have ainly black roads but all side roads still affected with hard packed snow and ice. All routes been treated including footpaths.

Badenoch and Strathspey 08:22 - Fresh snow this morning in the north of the area with sleet and damp roads in the south. All routes being treated as well as footpaths. No known overnight issues.

Nairn 08:22 - Snow and sleet showers this morning affecting all routes throughout the area. All routes being treated as resources allow. Foot paths being treated too. No known overnight issues.

Lochaber 08:21 - All primary routes completed so secondary routes now starting to be treated. All footpath treatment complete and continuing through the day. Minus 6 to + 2 in areas with icy patches on roads. No sleet or snow. No other road issues reported.

Isle of Skye and Raasay 06:58 - South Skye has dry roads with patchy ice and the air temperature is around minus 4. North Skye has black ice all over, as does Raasay. All operatives are out attending to winter maintenance, however, as road conditions are extremely challenging, drivers are advise to take extreme caution when traveling and only travel if necessary.

Caithness 05:48 - Due to extremely low temperatures last night road surface temperatures are below freezing. Rain falling this morning onto cold surfaces has caused black ice all over the area. Drivers are urged to be cautious whilst traveling today. as roads and paths are very slippery. All routes will be treated as per policy including footpaths. No known overnight issues to report.

Inverness 06:17 – There is a dusting of snow on roads on top of old frozen/ hard packed snow. Gritters are starting to treat all routes

Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh 06:43 - Very cold and dry start to the morning, with overnight road surface temperatures and air temperatures plummeting to minus 8 across most of the Ward 5 network. Caution must be advised when traveling. All strategic A-class roads snowploughs have been launched and secondary and other routes will be treated, along with footways. There were no overnight issues pertaining to winter. All treatments are ongoing. Meanwhile, the Bealach na ba (C1087) remains closed, however The Applecross coast road (C1091) has been well treated and is open to all road users.

A number of schools are closed today due to the weather. For details visit https://www.highland.gov.uk/schoolclosures - Please note that this page is cleared at 4pm each day.

Follow our social media channels to keep up-to-date with all Highland Council road issues - X @HighlandCouncil (external link) and Facebook (external link)

Information and flooding advice is available on our website

Information on weather warnings is available on the Met Office website (external link)

For information on Trunk Roads follow @trafficscotland (external link)

For information on power cuts, visit SSEN website

SEPA are the Scottish Environment Protection Agency - SEPA (external link)

Ready Scotland’s aim is to make Scotland more resilient to emergencies. We know that disruptions can happen at any time and we’re here to help - Ready Scotland (external link)