WEATHER forecasters are warning of potential flooding this weekend as Scotland recovers from Storm Abigail.
High winds and lightning strikes left more than 20,000 homes without power as gusts of up to 84mph battered the country.
On Friday night 500 customers were still without power in the Western Isles, Shetland, Skye, Colonsay, Argyll and Angus.
The Met Office has a yellow "be aware warning" for Highlands and the Western Isles, Central, Tayside and Fife as rainfall of up to five inches in upland areas was predicted from 4pm on Saturday. Further amber warnings were issues for Strathclyde, south west Scotland and Lothian and Borders. The alerts expire at 10pm on Sunday.
Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) issued nine amber flood alert warnings covering the southern half of Scotalnd about persistent and at time heavy rain from Saturday evening through to late Sunday.
"River flooding to low lying land and roads is possible and flooding to properties could occur. Surface water flooding issues are also expected leading to potential travel disruption and ponding of water in known trouble spots," said a SEPA spokesman.
A Met Office spokesman said that the front that was bringing the rain was "slow moving" and that motorists have to be aware of flooding problems.
"Rain associated with this feature is expected to become heavy and persistent, especially over hills exposed to the strong west to southwesterly flow," said the Met Office.
"Be aware that, given already saturated conditions, flooding is possible either from standing water or from rivers which have remained high after the large rainfall totals over the last few days.
"This additional rainfall, falling on to already saturated ground, is likely to lead to further flooding."
All schools in Shetland and the Western Isles were closed on Friday as the local council prepared for the storm.
The storm reached its peak in the early hours of Thursday and Scotland's transport minister Derek Mackay said: "There has been an impact on coastal communities and the islands where the most severe weather warnings are in place, but for the rest of the country it's been wintry and blustery.
"I think it was right to prepare for the worst, this is the beginning of the winter period and it allows us to make sure all services are working together.
"There shouldn't be any major travel disruption that we feared last night and particularly this morning, it seems to have passed and others have described it to me as just 'fairly minging out there' - now that's neither a technical weather term of a Transport Scotland term."
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