A FRESH band of snow and ice was expected across the north of Scotland in the early hours of this morning.

The Met Office said as much as three centimetres of snow could fall at low levels in the east and north of the country while as much as 10cm may accumulate on higher ground.

Temperatures are expected to fall below freezing again today with yellow “be aware” weather warnings in place for the Highlands, Grampian, Strathclyde, central and South West Scotland.

Travel in the north has been disrupted over the past two days by snowfall and freezing conditions with some trains cancelled. Over 5,200 road treatments have been carried out this winter in order to keep road routes open, according to Transport Scotland.

Transport minister Humza Yousaf said: ''There is no doubt that we have seen some locally-challenging conditions over the last few days, but we have high levels of salt in stock and more gritters than ever before to spread salt and plough snow as conditions dictate.”

Extreme weather already wreaked havoc in parts of the country last week. There have been reports of thousands of properties losing power in Aberdeenshire, cars drifting on snow and lorries being blown over in the Highlands, and roads being blocked for hours in the Scottish borders.