Two amber severe weather warnings have been put in place as snow and ice are set to hit parts of Scotland.

It has been warned there will be a "danger to life" as severe conditions are expected across the country.

Heavy snow will hit inland Aberdeenshire, Perthshire, northern Stirlingshire and the southern Highlands on Saturday and Sunday.

The Met Office also released an amber warning for ice for most of central and southern Scotland expected to be affected.

A yellow weather warning has been in place for the majority of the country since Thursday.

STV Weather presenter Sean Batty said: " Two amber warnings have been issued by the Met Office, one for snow across inland Aberdeenshire, Perthshire, northern Stirlingshire and the southern Highlands.

"The other warning is for freezing rain and ice, and this covers most of central and southern Scotland, as well as northern England.

"This is quite a rare move from the Met Office, which emphasises the point that this could be a dangerous weather event. The last time I can see the Met Office issued an amber warning for ice was back in 2012.

"Freezing rain is much more common in USA where they call them ice storms, here it is quite rare.

"On this occasion we have the right conditions for freezing rain, as we've had cold air and warmer air battling over the UK for days now."

The warmer air in the west will move east tomorrow, but colder air will sit below this warmer air, which means water droplets will fall through the colder air near the ground and become 'supercooled'.

Once this supercooled droplet hits the ground it instantly freezes and can create large areas of glazed ice.

Sean added: "This ice can form on roads, pavements trees and power line, which can lead to numerous impacts. It's also very dangerous as it is very hard to see for drivers."

On Saturday wintry weather will spread across the country with the heaviest falls coming in late morning and throughout the afternoon and evening.

Where we have the amber warning for snow there could be up to 40cm of snow in the highest areas.

At lower levels 5-10cm of snow can be expected with a risk of up to 20cm in a few spots.

This is likely to lead to road closures, power cuts and possible loss of mobile coverage.

Sean said: "In the amber area for ice there will be a danger to life due to icy surfaces.

"Black ice may affect bus, train and air travel.

"Some cycle paths and pavements could become impassable due to ice and again mobile coverage and power may be interrupted due to ice accretion on lines."

The wintry weather will also be accompanied by strong winds, which will lead to blizzard-like conditions on hills and drifting of lying snow.

Gales can be expected widely across the Hebrides and Northern Isles, although wind in the west will ease through Saturday. The strongest wind will affect the Northern Isles and Caithness, where gusts could reach up to 70mph at times.

The weather will be much quieter on Sunday, but it will stay quite windy. Next week milder conditions finally move in, with temperatures hitting double figures for most of the country by Tuesday.