Fears of blizzards and treacherous conditions across Scotland receded today as much of the expected bad weather failed to arrive.

Fears of blizzards and treacherous conditions across Scotland receded today as much of the expected bad weather failed to arrive.

Forecasters had been predicting a white-out with heavy snow across the country.

But the snow did not fall as heavily as had been anticipated, except on high ground.

A Met Office severe weather warning remained in place, predicting drifting snow and blizzards later today.

There was also disruption on some roads, but emergency services reported conditions were for the most part fine and there were no major incidents.

Forecasters said temperatures had risen slightly in the night, transforming much of the expected snow into rain.

But they warned snow could still hit parts of eastern Scotland later today.

Rachel Vince, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "The air warmed up a little bit more than what was expected. It rained in more places where we expected snow."

She added there were still "significant falls in some places".

"We are expecting parts of eastern Scotland to see rain turn back to snow this morning," Ms Vince added.

The area hardest hit overnight was Dumfries and Galloway, which received up to 15cm of snow in places.

But in Aviemore, in the Highlands, where some of the heaviest snowfalls had been predicted, only 2cm had fallen.

Traffic Scotland warned of snow on a stretch of the M74 motorway in Dumfries and Galloway and said queues were forming on some other routes.

BEAR Scotland, which manages and maintains the 1,120 miles of trunk roads in the east of Scotland on behalf of Transport Scotland, has been treating all routes.

Winter maintenance vehicles were out patrolling and treating roads as necessary today.