Wintry weather is expected to ease over the weekend after another day of travel disruption, school closures and power lines down.

More than 2,000 homes were left without power on Friday morning in the Highlands, Aberdeenshire, Moray and Angus areas as a combination of high winds, snow and fallen trees hit supplies.

Schools were also badly affected by snow and ice, with 29 closures in place in Moray, Aberdeenshire and the Highlands.

Met office "be aware" warnings are still in place for many parts of the country but conditions are forecast to become milder and more settled over the weekend.

Temperatures will remain low on Saturday morning, reaching -6C (21.2F) in some places, but will increase throughout the day leading to dry and bright weather for many.

Met Office chief meteorologist Steve Willington said: "Following this period of more wintry conditions, the weather will be turning milder but rather cloudy and dull for the whole of the UK by Sunday, when we expect to see temperatures of 9C (48.2F) and 10C (50F) quite widely across the country.

"Although there is still a chance of some snow on Saturday in some areas, by Sunday any precipitation will fall as rain. Keep an eye on the forecast for your area for the latest information."

About 18cm of snow was recorded in the Inverness area on Friday and motorists faced problems on the roads, with closures in place on the A9.

Transport Scotland said more than 5,200 treatments have been carried out this winter to help keep routes open.

Transport minister Humza Yousaf said: "It has been an extremely busy week for the winter maintenance teams and that is continuing tonight with around 170 gritters out on the network.

"There is no doubt that we have seen some locally challenging conditions over the last few days but we have high levels of salt in stock and more gritters than ever before to spread salt and plough snow as conditions dictate.

"Once again, we would ask road users to drive to the conditions and to leave plenty of time for their journeys.

"The Traffic Scotland Twitter feed and website has the reliable traffic and travel information drivers need to make informed decisions and the advice, as always, is to plan ahead."