WIND and rain lashed Glasgow and the West of Scotland today as severe weather conditions continued to sweep the country.

Commuters endured yet another miserable, rain soaked journey to work, with surface water on carriageways slowing traffic on main routes into the city.

A Met Office yellow alert for severe weather was issued for Strathclyde, South West Scotland, Lothian and Borders, Central, Tayside and Fife.

It came just a day after hurricane-force winds battered the north and west of Scotland with gusts of 112mph recorded on the Isle of Lewis.

Glasgow experienced gusts of around 40mph overnight with gusts of 75mph recorded overnight in Aviemore. Coastal areas, including Argyll, saw winds hit 60 to 70mph.

Residents in Glasgow's South Side even had to dodge flying garden debris as they walked to work today.

Rainfall overnight in the Glasgow area was just 5mm. The highest recorded rainfall overnight was 37mm in Caithness.

In South Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway there were reports of hazardous driving conditions on A74(M) between J14, A702 (Elvanfoot) and J15, B7076 (Moffat) due to surface water.

Flood alerts were issued for West Central Scotland and Ayrshire and Arran with high tides today. Exposed coastlines are most as risk in particular in between Ayr and Troon.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency said there could be minor coastal flooding around the Firth of Clyde.

Any associated waves will decrease overnight however tide levels are expected to remain high. SEPA will monitor the situation as it develops and issue further updates as appropriate.

Elsewhere, flood warnings were in place in Tayside and in Central, at Callander.

Sean Penston, a forecaster with the Meteogroup, said: "In Glasgow rain will continue through the afternoon turning better towards the evening. Tomorrow will turn drier with the possibility of some sunny spells in the afternoon.

"There is likely to be wintry showers in the north east and east coast."

Ferries were disrupted due to weather conditions with services suspended on the Calmac Ardrossan to Brodick and Largs to Cumbrae routes.

There were also delays on the Rothesay and Wemyss Bay service, and a woman in her 90s had to make part of her journey to Lorn and Islands District General Hospital for emergency surgery by lifeboat from her home on the Isle of Mull on Wednesday.

An RNLI statement said: "Due to the gale-force conditions, the ferry which would normally be used to transfer patients was unable to make the crossing.

"The crossing would normally take around 35 minutes; however, with winds reaching gale-force eight to nine, it took considerably longer on this occasion."

deborah.anderson@ eveningtimes.co.uk