Elected Member Briefing Note - Weather Update, 3pm, 23 January 2026

About this Briefing Note

Report by: Stefan Morkis, Team Leader, News and Media

Date: 23 January 2026

Subject: Weather update - 3pm, Thursday 23 January 2026

Details

Purpose

To provide an update on the response to heavy rain and snow in Perth and Kinross.

Briefing Information

The Met Office's Amber Warning for Perth and Kinross ended at 6pm on Thursday but a yellow weather warning for rain remains in place until Sunday.

A further meeting of the Incident Management Team took place at 3pm to review conditions overnight and identify possible areas of concern.

No further IMTs are planned for the weekend. If you need to raise an issue over the weekend please do so by contacting the Emergency Response Duty Officer (ERDO) as normal.

Perth Flood Scheme

Due to falling water levels in the Tay and a drop in the water flow, flood barriers on the Queen's Bridge were removed this morning. The bridge re-opened to traffic around 11.30am.

Flood gates at Perth Harbour were opened around 7.30am allowing full access to the Harbour and Lower Friarton but Shore Road was closed following a fire at a business unit on Friarton Road. The road re-opened at 2pm.

The Harbour floodgates will be monitored during high tides on Friday and Saturday evening. It is currently anticipated there will be no need to close floodgates on Saturday but a closure is more likely on Saturday evening, when the flow of the Tay will exceed 900 cumecs. Businesses will be advised of any closure through text message and we will share information on social media.

Other floodgates currently remain closed. Organisers of the North Inch Park Run have been advised the floodgates will be closed during their regular run on Saturday morning.

Community reassurance

The Community Support and Enforcement Team are continuing to keep in touch with community resilience groups and will have teams available overnight on call if additional action is needed.

Reassurance visits to residents in Commercial Street, Rose Terrace and Barossa Street were carried out on Thursday and Friday but there have been no requests for support. Further visits will take place to check on properties where owners/tenants may not have been at home during the storm.

Our Structures Team has started inspections today to check for any possible damage to bridges in Perth and Kinross and this work will continue into next week.

Weather-related road closures

Currently the following roads are closed due to the weather conditions:

• A923 Blairgowrie to Coupar Angus Road - Flooding
• B954 Alyth to Meigle - Flooding
• A924 Bridge of Cally to Kirkmichael Road at Ballintuim - Flooding
• C423 New Alyth to Aberbothrie Road - Flooding
• B950 at junction with A93 at Bridge of Cally - Flooding
• B898 at Dalguise - Flooding
• A923 at Butterstone - Flooding
• C455 South Comrie to Crieff Road A984 between A93 Meikleour crossroads and A923 Bendochy - Flooding

The A827 Ballinluig to Pitnacree Bridge is passable with care, and the A93 Perth to Blairgowrie Road (Cargill Bridge). The A93 at Blairgowrie is clear but the area is currently experiencing heavy snow.

School closures

All Perth and Kinross Schools are expected to open on Monday.