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Weather forecast: Flood alerts issued for parts of north-east as rain hits

Pedestrians on Union Street, Aberdeen. Picture by Kath Flannery

The north and north-east have been issued with flood alerts as it looks ahead to a weekend of further wet weather – though other parts of Scotland have it far worse.

From Ullapool to Aberdeen, the Met Office is forecasting rain for large periods of Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The downpour currently hitting the Granite City will continue until around 9pm, with only a possible brief hiatus in mid-afternoon, before starting again early tomorrow morning.

Saturday evening is forecast to be be dry, but the rain will be back from late morning until early evening on Sunday.

In Inverness it is a similar story, though tomorrow is looking a little brighter: after a brief morning shower, the majority of the day will simply be overcast, and there may even be some glimpses of sun in the afternoon.

Very damp shoppers in Inverness city centre. Picture by Sandy McCook

Residents in Elgin could see a Saturday free of rain entirely, though like Inverness the wet weather will be back for Sunday.

In contrast, Stornoway will avoid showers today but may have to deal with them for the majority of the day tomorrow.

Lerwick and Kirkwall are both in the middle of quite intense downpours today which look like they will last well into the night, but both Shetland and Orkney should see things let up a bit for the rest of the weekend.

Sepa alerts for north-east

With the wet weather forecast to continue in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) has issued the north-east with flood alerts.

Sepa flood alerts and warnings for October 29.

For Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City, the agency has warned of “flooding impacts from rivers and surface water” across the region, possible causing disruption to travel and water causing trouble on land and roads.

The alert for Findhorn, Nairn, Moray and Speyside is the same, with locals urged to remain vigilant to the threat of potential floods.

Floods hit south

Nowhere in the north-east or Highlands and islands are being hit quite as hard as the south of Scotland though, where flooding has become a serious issue in the past couple of days.

In the Borders town of Hawick, up to 500 properties are thought to be at risk of damage from water, with Police Scotland declaring a major incident at the scene yesterday.

Chief Inspector Vinnie Fisher urged people to avoid travelling to the area unless “absolutely necessary”.

Parts of Cumbria in north-west England have also been hit by devastating floods.

High water levels in Cockermouth, Cumbria. Picture by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

A yellow weather warning for rain from the Met Office came into effect at 3am, covering the entire south-west of Scotland and much of the Central Belt.

Sepa has issued flood warnings – which is more severe than an alert – for ten parts of the Borders, as well as Rosebank in the west central area of the country.