Chaos as north-east battered by thunderstorms

There is major disruption across the north-east today after thunderstorms battered the region.

Dozens of lightning strikes were recorded in the area overnight and this morning, with further disruption in Tayside, Fife, the Lothians and the Central Belt.

Numerous schools in the north-east have been forced to shut on the day they had been due to reopen after five months.

A full list for Aberdeenshire can be found here - meanwhile Aberdeen City Council has also provided an update:

SCHOOL UPDATE: A number of schools have been impacted by the weather. School staff are currently dealing with the situation and are contacting parents/guardians via Groupcall. For the latest updates on schools affected visit https://t.co/AVuAATFink

— Aberdeen City Council (@AberdeenCC) August 12, 2020

SEPA has 17 flood warnings for Scotland, including ones affecting the north-east:

Flood Warnings have been issued in #Stonehaven and #Tayside. See https://t.co/5v90r5aVmg for more information. pic.twitter.com/sTzk55Nu98

— Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) (@ScottishEPA) August 12, 2020

There are problems on roads across the region:

#A92 Muchalls Bend❗️

Road is partially blocked N/B due to flooding and a BDV. @originalfm @NETrunkRoads @trafficscotland #ABZTravel pic.twitter.com/qvxT3UHuQU

— Aberdeen Travel (@AberdeenTravel) August 12, 2020

Road is ⛔️CLOSED⛔️ in both directions.#ABZTravel https://t.co/pBB8Tl2rbW

— Aberdeen Travel (@AberdeenTravel) August 12, 2020

#BBirdServiceUpdate Due to flooded roads all 7,7B,X7 services between Aberdeen and Stonehaven are experiencing delays of up to one hour
Currently we can't serve Hillside, Portlethen,and buses in Stonehaven are stuck due to the roads being grid-locked around Barclays Street

— Stagecoach Bluebird (@StagecoachBBird) August 12, 2020

Several railway lines are blocked, affecting services in and out of Aberdeen:

UPDATE at 0830

⛔️ We're unable to run trains on these routes in either direction:

Edinburgh - Fife
Edinburgh - Glasgow Qn St via Falkirk High & Grahamston
Edinburgh/Glasgow - Dunblane
Edinburgh - West Calder
Aberdeen - Edinburgh/Glasgow
Aberdeen - Dyce
Inverness - Perth

— ScotRail (@ScotRail) August 12, 2020

This is what the weather looked like in the east of Scotland overnight:

It's been a damaging night for parts of E Scotland with an AMBER #Thunderstorm warning in force. We've seen in excess of 80 mm of rain in places, frequent lightning, hail & flooding. The AMBER warning is out until 9 am with storms pushing NE'wards across Aberdeenshire & Moray pic.twitter.com/x8ePgYCqxc

— Met Office (@metoffice) August 12, 2020