Dozens of helicopters affected as snow coats north and north-east

Across Aberdeen and Sumburgh, 30 helicopter flights have been either cancelled or delayed this morning due to heavy snow.

At the time of writing (11:30am), CHC is reporting no flights from Sumburgh, Shetland.

Meanwhile, six offshore-bound helicopter flights from Aberdeen have been delayed, but there are yet to be any CHC cancellations.

A total of five NHV flights have been cancelled from the heliport at Aberdeen Airport and a further four have been delayed.

Offshore Helicopter Services have cancelled two flights and two more have been delayed at Dyce, while four have been cancelled at Sumburgh.

Bristow has delayed seven flights from Aberdeen but is yet to outright cancel any, while one journey from Sumburgh has also been pushed back.

Of the firms impacted,  TAQA, Ithaca and Chrysaor were the worst affected with four flights being delayed or cancelled each.

The Met Office has forecast snow showers, “probably most widespread and heavy early and later in the day”, as winds are predicted around the north coast.

Want a quick look at Wednesday's weather?

Here is the latest 4cast…👇 pic.twitter.com/cC5esS6bPw

— Met Office (@metoffice) December 13, 2022

It comes as the Press and Journal report 2,800 homes could be without power in Shetland until the end of the week due to the weather.

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for wind in Shetland from 7 am until 2 pm, with gusts of up to 65mph expected.

In response, the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) has met to discuss the impacts of power outages in Shetland.

SGoRR meetings are held to co-ordinate the work of the Scottish Government and its agencies and brief ministers during emergencies and significant events.

Yesterday, justice secretary Keith Brown, lead minister for resilience, said: “The challenging circumstances facing parts of Shetland have been declared a major incident and, while SSEN is making every effort to restore supplies, it is clear that many properties will face days without power.

“Sumburgh airport has now reopened and we are working with SSEN and transport operators to maximise capacity. We expect more SSEN engineers will arrive early tomorrow morning and will continue to do what we can to get as many staff and as much equipment to Shetland as needed, as early as possible.”