The A9 north of Perth has been hit by the first blast of winter weather.
Heavy snow falling at Drumochter Pass the highest point in the road caused problems for motorists throughout the day.
Despite the presence of snow ploughs, the road was reduced to one lane for mush of the afternoon.
Police also warned of “significant delays” for motorists as vehicles became embroiled in difficult driving conditions.
A spokesman reported “several road traffic incidents” which added to the misery for drivers at the notorious spot near Dalwhinnie.
Weather forecast service MeteoGroup warned that conditions across the UK and Ireland will turn unsettled over the coming days as a deep area of low pressure forms in the North Atlantic, which will lead to a “powerful” storm.
Scotland will be the worst-affected region, with around 10cm or more of snow expected on the country’s mountains.
A spokesman for the met Office said: “Across the tops of the Scottish mountains it will be pretty horrendous.”
However, he said it is too early to predict a White Christmas.
He added: “It does look as though the unsettled weather theme will continue, but we can’t really pin down any detail about the actual weather type on Christmas day.”
“At this stage it’s still a long way away before we could give precise detail.”
An additional yellow early alert of severe gales has been issued for Wednesday for everywhere in Scotland except Shetland.