Cold Arctic air is set to bring frequent snow showers, icy conditions and travel disruption across Scotland next week.

The Met Office has issued yellow snow and ice warnings as temperatures are expected to plunge over the coming days.

Met Office meteorologist Liam Eslick said that temperatures in the UK will be about 5C to 6C lower than usual for this time of year.

Mr Eslick said: “Especially towards the north where we do have these warnings we’re likely to see some some travel disruption."

READ MORE: Cold Arctic air forecast to bring snow for parts of northern Scotland

He said that “icy conditions” were expected, with maximum temperatures of 0C in parts of Scotland, and only 2C to 4C in southern parts of the UK.

A snow and ice warning is in place across the north of Scotland from midnight on Sunday until midnight on Monday. The warning area will then spread across the whole of Scotland and into northern England on Tuesday.

A snow warning will also be in place from midnight on Wednesday until midnight on Thursday across northern and western Scotland, parts of northern England and Wales.

The Met Office has warned that some low-lying areas in the north of Scotland could see 10 cm of snow accumulating in a few hours on Monday. 

Snow showers will continue to feed inland on Tuesday morning across northern and western Scotland, where 2-5 cm of snow is possible over a few hours in some places. There is a chance some places could see 5-10 cm or perhaps 20 cm of snow, particularly across the northern half of Scotland and over higher ground elsewhere.

Frequent snow showers are likely to cause further disruption to travel during Wednesday and Thursday. Northern Scotland will see the heaviest and most frequent snow showers during Wednesday morning, before the snow showers develop across parts of southwest Scotland later in the day.

READ MORE: Scottish village records the lowest temperature in 2023

Snow showers are likely to continue during Wednesday night and well into Thursday, with a chance that some low-lying areas could see 10 cm in a few hours. Across northern Scotland, over 20 cm of snow could build up in a few locations, The Met Office said.

ScotRail has confirmed that, due to expected bad weather, it is cancelling three trains on Monday morning between Perth and Inverness on the advice of Network Rail.

The trains affected are the 06.47 Kingussie to Inverness, the 08.38 Edinburgh to Inverness which will terminate at Perth and the 08.43 Inverness to Glasgow Queen Street which will only run from Perth to Glasgow.