Gale-force winds with gusts of up to 90mph could hit parts of Scotland tomorrow, affecting Christmas travel plans.
Rain showers are also predicted to sweep across the country with snow falling on higher ground, creating blizzard conditions on the mountains.
Dumfries and Galloway and the west coast are set to experience the first of the strongest winds before they pass into the north west Highlands and the Northern Isles.
The Met Office has issued amber "be prepared" warnings for 80-90mph winds in Argyll and Bute, the Highlands and the islands, with lesser yellow "be aware" warnings for the rest of the country with widespread winds of around 60mph expected.
The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) has eight flood warnings in place for the Tayside area with other alerts for the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.
With many people expected to be travelling home for Christmas or shopping for last-minute presents, transport bosses say they are monitoring the situation and are preparing for the conditions.
The Scottish Government's resilience operation will keep in touch with the Met Office, Sepa and utilities companies throughout the day.
Traffic Scotland manager Stein Connelly said: "This is obviously the time of year when many people are travelling home for the festive season and we would urge them to take the weather conditions into consideration when they are planning their journeys.
"The Met Office is telling us that the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the north-west Highlands and the Northern Isles will be particularly badly affected by the winds and we would remind people that bridges in these areas may have to close at some points during the day.
"The rest of the country will experience some strong winds and this could lead to some isolated problems on the roads.
"The message, as always, is to make sure you have as much information as possible before starting your journey, and to consider when you travel."
The A9 has already been closed intermittently over the last week due to snowfall on the main road to the Highlands.
Billy Payne, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, said the weather will die down as Christmas Day begins.
He said: "It's going to be a very windy day with widespread 60mph winds, pushing up to around 70 along the west coast and even 80 or 90mph in the Northern Isles.
"Showers will accompany the winds but should pass during the day, falling as sleet and snow on higher ground.
"For Christmas Day the winds should die down on the mainland but will remain strong on the islands. It looks like only those in the highest parts will see any kind of white Christmas, with little snow expected in lower lying areas.
"For both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day the temperature will be between 4 and 7C."
Ferry operator CalMac is urging anyone intending to travel by ferry to be as flexible as they can when planning their journeys.
A spokesman said: "We have been advised that there will be prolonged periods of severe weather hitting Scotland over the next couple of weeks, including the Christmas and new year holiday period. As a result our services may experience cancellations and disruptions.
"Due to the impact of this weather it is likely that our timetables and sailings will change at very short notice as we endeavour to maintain lifeline services."
Power company Scottish Hydro said hundreds of engineers and support staff will be working in depots and offices across the network and will respond to any damages to the electricity network.
Extra call handlers will also be working to give customers advice and to talk to anyone who may lose their electricity supply, Hydro said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article