Highland Winter Road Conditions Report – Thursday 9 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 – Sleet and snow showers will continue for the rest of Wednesday and Thursday, before dying out by the end of Thursday evening. Northwest Scotland and the Northern and Western Isles will see the most frequent showers on Wednesday, before extending to the Northeast on Thursday. Further accumulations of 3-7 cm are expected to low levels, with 10-15 cm possible above 150 metres. Where any modest daytime thaw has occurred, icy stretches are likely on untreated surfaces. 

Highland Road Conditions Report for Thursday 9 January 2025 are as follows:

• Lochaber (as at 08:39) - Fresh covering of snow and low temperatures on most of the priority and secondary routes bladed and treated. Treatment on other routes being carried out as resources come available, some schools in the peninsula area are closed today, no problems overnight.
• Sutherland (as at 08:37) - A fresh fall of snow across the whole area, 10cm on low ground and up to 20cm on high ground with slight drifting in places, all routes been bladed and treated including footpaths.
• Caithness (as at 08:26) - Fresh cover of light snow in most areas with continued snow showers up to 1inch on inland roads. All routes being treated as resources allow. No overnight issues reported.
• Badenoch and Strathspey (as at 07:15) - Fresh snow overnight and this morning across the area and affecting all routes. All routes being treated and footpaths being treated as well. No known overnight issues.
• Nairn (as at 07:13) - Fresh snow this morning on all routes. All routes being treated as well as footpaths. No known overnight issues.
• Skye & Raasay (as at 07:01) - Skye, North and South - continued snow fall through the night has left all routes with a couple of inches of lying snow. Raasay has an inch on the lower levels, increasing on the higher routes. All gritters are working their way around their routes. Advise extreme caution and drive to conditions.
• East Ross-shire (as at 06:32) - A fresh covering of snow across the network this morning with up to 4 inches being reported on the highest roads. Fresh snow on top of ice is causing tricky conditions. All routes plus footpaths are being treated but caution advised on any untreated surfaces.
• Ward 5 Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh (as at 06:14) - Fresh snow overnight on all routes. All routes and gritting to policy and footpaths. Not as low temps as was forecasted. No overnight issues reported.
• Inverness (as at 05:50) - Snow over network this morning, caution advised. Gritting covering all routes and footpaths as per policy, no known issues.

A number of schools are closed today due to the weather. For details visit 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 and Facebook

Information and flooding advice is available on our website

Information on weather warnings is available on the Met Office website

For information on Trunk Roads follow @trafficscotland

For information on power cuts, visit SSEN website

SEPA are the Scottish Environment Protection Agency - SEPA

Ready Scotland’s aim is to make Scotland more resilient to emergencies - Ready Scotland