By Amanda Keenan
SCOTLAND was put on flood alert last night as heavy rainfall swept in across much of the country following weeks of sunshine which had caused some areas to issue drought warnings.
Flash warnings of heavy rain have been issued by the Met Office for large parts of Aberdeenshire, Moray, Tayside, Fife, Lanarkshire and the Lothian’s.
Persistent and heavy rain saw around 15mm fall within just three hours in some places early on and as much as 35mm was expected in others.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency said it was monitoring water levels on rivers across Dumfries and Galloway – just weeks after the region was subject of a drought order application.
Earlier this month, Scottish Water made its first drought order application in five years following a prolonged dry spell in the area.
The application was made as water stocks dwindled at the Black Esk and Penwhirn sites which serve Annandale and Eskdale and Wigtownshire.
Scottish Water said it followed the driest first six months of the year since 1941.
Threats of flash floods also mean that water levels were being monitored on at least 20 rivers across the country including Aberdeen’s River Dee.
Nigel Goody of SEPA said: “The rainfall unfortunately is forecast to continue for the next few days and in fact the Met Office have recently issued a heavy rainfall warning for the Highlands – 25mm across the area with up to 40 mm on some of the hills.
“It will obviously continue to lead to surface water flooding and potentially transport problems as well.”
Motorists have been advised to take extra care due to a large amount of road surface water.
The rain wreaked havoc on roads throughout the country – fortunately no one was injured in a four vehicle pile up on the A90 outside Aberdeen on Thursday morning.
On the M90 the slip road from the A85 Dundee Road is closed southbound due to flooding at junction 11, Friarton Bridge. Diversions were been put in place via Kinfauns flyover.
In Perth the A989 was closed both ways due to flooding between the A912 Edinburgh Road and James Street
In Aberdeenshire the B999 south of Potterton was been badly affected by standing water, as is the B9077 Bridge of Dee to Maryculter road.
A spokesman for AA Roadwatch said: “It’s certainly been very tricky on the roads and our advice would be to slow down and take extra care.
“There’s a lot of surface water and spray, which is making things difficult.
“Thankfully there have been no reports of major accidents but the bad weather has caused some delays and queues.”
The weather experts said to expect prolonged heavy rain throughout the night and into today.
A Met Office spokesman said: “It has already arrived across southern Scotland and is going to become more persistent through the day.
“It is going to go on for a long time and there could be some heavy bursts so it is possible there could be some localised flooding. There will be steady rain for quite a while.”
Police were advising all motorists to take extra care on their journeys and to avoid standing water on roads.
