Flood warnings are in place in Tayside as rain lashes parts of Britain.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued warnings covering the Tayside and Borders areas.
Sepa also has three ‘be prepared’ flood alerts in place in the north east and Dumfries and Galloway.
In the Outer Hebrides, CalMac ferry sailings were cancelled for the day in North Uist and South Uist. Services have also been affected on Bute and the Isle of Lewis.
Traffic Scotland urged caution over surface water on the roads in the Fife and Lothian and Borders regions.
Five severe flood warnings – meaning that there is a danger to life – have been issued for the north west of England by the Environment Agency (EA) as forecasters said up to 4.7ins (120mm) of rain could fall in some areas already saturated by wave after wave of winter squalls.
The average rainfall for the whole of December in the north west is 5.7ins (145mm) – so not far off a month’s rain could lash the region in hours.
The severe flood warnings – the EA’s highest level of warning – are for two locations on the River Ribble at Ribchester and three locations on the River Calder at Whalley.
A red weather warning, the most serious alert, for heavy rain and flooding in Lancashire was issued by the Met Office on Saturday morning.
People are advised to move valuables and take advice from emergency services about evacuation.
Around 115 flood alerts and 100 warnings were also issued by the EA, mainly for the north west, north east and Wales.
The Government’s emergency Cobra committee met on Christmas Day while a company from the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, helped committees across the north west build miles of temporary flood defences.
The EA said 85% of the country’s temporary flood barriers had been sent to Cumbria, where rainfall has smashed records, and the Lakeland region braced itself again ahead of the deluge.
Met Office forecaster Greg Dewhurst said the latest weather is “unusual” when the mild conditions enjoyed during December are taken into account.
“And as you can see from the rainfall figures from this weekend alone it’s very similar to what we’d expect across the whole month, so it is unusual to see such a prolonged unsettled spell,” he said.