Homes without power in Shetland as temperature hits new low

About 3,800 homes are without power in Shetland after the islands were hit by heavy snow.

The areas affected include Voe and Brae in the north mainland along with the islands of Yell, Unst and Whalsay.

The majority of faults have been caused by snow and ice sticking to overhead power lines, causing them to fail.

Meanwhile the temperature dropped to -17.3C in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, overnight on the coldest night of the year so far.

In Shetland the wintry conditions also caused problems on the roads, with about 40 vehicles stuck on a hill at Weisdale on Monday afternoon.

It took about seven hours to move them all, and to allow Shetland Islands Council gritters to treat the surface.

All schools and early learning setting across the islands are closed, with the exception of those in Fair Isle.

Several schools in the Highland Council area are also closed due to the weather.

Graeme Keddie, of SSE Networks, told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland the network in Shetland had been damaged by extreme weather on Monday afternoon and evening.

“We’ve reconnected about 2,000 homes across Shetland but around 3,800 remain without power. Some of them were connected last night but further damage has been reported.” he said.

“Our teams are doing all they can to restore power as quickly as possible. At first light our teams will be out assessing the damage and looking to mobilise operations as quickly as possible.”

A Met Office yellow weather warning for snow and ice is in place across the north of Scotland, Shetland and Orkney until 12:00 on Thursday.

Overnight a temperature of -15C was recorded at Balmoral, -14C at Aviemore, -13C at Dalwhinne and at Fyvie Castle it was -12C.

Forecasters say snow showers and icy surfaces will bring some travel disruption.

Neil Hutchison, from Shetland Islands Council’s road department said there was not too much snow overnight after heavy falls on Monday afternoon.

“The first thing we’ll be doing today is clearing the main roads,” he said.

“That may take a bit of time given the amount of snow on them. And then of course we’re moving on to the side roads – that’ll be much later in the day, I’m afraid.

“I think the main problem is there’s quite a lot of vehicles stuck in various places on the road network and that meant other vehicles weren’t able to get past.

“Once we got those cleared people were able to move on. Unfortunately that took quite a while – that took into the early evening in some places”

On Monday police in Shetland asked people to avoid travelling unless absolutely necessary.

More than 20 volunteers were called out from coastguard teams based at Lerwick, Walls, Sumburgh and Hillswick.

They rescued a woman with learning difficulties after her taxi became stranded on the main A970 road between Lerwick and the north east of mainland.

They also attended a number of vulnerable households which had lost power.