A second day of heavy snow has caused a series of road accidents and closed about 150 schools across Scotland.
Driving snow and blizzards overnight caused problems for morning commuters in southern and central parts of the country and the weather pushed north throughout the day.
Major roads were forced to close in Perthshire, Angus, Fife, Aberdeenshire and the Borders due to the conditions and a spate of accidents.
The A9 near to Kindallachan at Ballinluig, five miles south of Pitlochry in Perthshire, was closed in both directions after a serious road accident.
There were long tail-backs as surrounding roads were also blocked by the weather.
Dangerous driving conditions were responsible for a road accident on the A94 Scone Road in Perth on Tuesday morning, according to Tayside Police.
A lorry jack-knifed and a car hit a traffic sign whilst trying to avoid the lorry. The people involved suffered minor injuries.
More than 150 schools, around 5% of the total school estate, were closed or partially closed by the bad weather, with the majority in Aberdeenshire and others in Angus, Moray, the Borders, Fife, Perth and the Highlands.
Most are expected to reopen on Wednesday but councils said information will be posted on websites and passed to local media in the early morning if the situation changes.
Sean Penston, a forecaster for MeteoGroup, said: “Rain, sleet and snow is moving north-west across the country to affect most eastern parts while the west will be more sheltered by the Highlands.
“The worst conditions will be the ice as temperatures are low, the wintry showers will turn to ice pretty quickly.
“Snow will accumulate to 10-15cms (3.9-5.9ins) in the Highlands and there might be some drifting, which will cause pretty hazardous conditions, while there will only be 2-5cms (0.7-1.9ins) in the central belt.
“Temperatures will also remain low, with a maximum of around 3C (37.4F) and conditions will freeze overnight with the potential to reach -6C (21.2F). But it looks like by the end of the week conditions will be reasonably mild.”
In the Scottish Parliament, transport minister Keith Brown told MSPs that although the weather in Scotland had been “less severe” than other parts of the UK, work had been ongoing to keep the country moving.
He said: “Snow has fallen in several areas of Scotland since Friday evening. Although some travelling to other parts of the UK has suffered significant inconvenience, I’m pleased to say the impact in Scotland itself has been limited, albeit it has varied from place to place, with the north east of Scotland and the Borders seeing significant impacts.”
He added: “While the weather we have been experiencing in Scotland has been less severe than elsewhere, the limited scale of the disruption is in no small part down to the work of staff and volunteers in front-line agencies across Scotland who have helped to keep Scotland running despite the inclement weather.
“We can’t afford to be complacent however, to that end our multi-agency response team has been active and co-ordinating the work to keep transport networks running.”
See more on how the weather has affected Tayside and Fife in Wednesday’s Courier, or try our new digital edition.