Travel chaos gripped Scotland last night as thunderstorms forced a host of Edinburgh-bound flights to be diverted away from the capital to Glasgow and Prestwick.
Torrential rain, thunder and lightning meant pilots were prevented from landing at Edinburgh Airport for a prolonged period of time on Tuesday evening, with many forced to touch down more than 70 miles away at Prestwick, or at Glasgow, more than 40 miles away, instead.
Holidaymakers returning to Edinburgh from Athens, Munich, Birmingham and Katowice were diverted to Glasgow, with flights from Pisa, Budapest, Hamburg and Porto all diverting to Prestwick, local news website Glasgow Live reported.
Several pilots were also forced to spend extended periods of time circling the skies over the Lanark area before touching down, according to the website.
The stormy weather also caused travel disruption on Scotland's roads and railways, with passengers and motorists facing journey delays on Wednesday.
ScotRail tweeted that due to “extremely heavy rain” and flooding on the railway, services across the country were set to be delayed or cancelled.
Passengers were advised to check before travelling and consider alternative transport where possible.
On the roads, some vehicles were recovered after they were abandoned amid flooding on the M8, which was partly closed for a time but later reopened.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “We were made aware of flooding on the M8 between junctions five and six in Lanarkshire shortly before 4am on Wednesday August 12.
“No injuries have been reported and officers have assisted partner agencies.”
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The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service meanwhile said it was called to multiple reports of flooding in the Perthshire area, with many domestic properties affected.
Perth and Kinross Council said several roads in the area were impassable due to flooding.
At 7am, the council tweeted that Feus Road, Marshall Place, Wallace Crescent, Crammond Place, Crieff Road, Glasgow Road and the A912 at Bogle Bridge were all affected, while surface water was causing problems in many other areas.
Pictures posted on social media showed cars half-submerged in floodwater in streets in Perth.
In Fife, a landslide caused the closure of the A921 between Kinghorn and Burntisland, prompting police to urge motorists to use an alternative route.
Heavy flooding also affected Kirkcaldy, with cars parked at the town’s Victoria Hospital piled on top of each other after floating.
Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said: “The overnight flooding at Victoria Hospital car park is a horrible blow for hardworking NHS staff coming off night shift this morning.
“Many of these healthcare workers depend on their cars to get to work and it’s vital they are given immediate advice and practical support from NHS Fife.”
An NHS Fife spokesman said: “Our staff have worked tirelessly overnight to manage the unprecedented flooding at our Victoria Hospital site.
“It has been mainly staff, rather than patients, that has been affected by the flooding in car parks A and B and all staff have been provided with transport to get them home safely this morning after their shift.
“A recovery effort is now under way to remove the damaged cars from the car parks and support is being put in place to help those who have been directly impacted by the flooding, with planning well under way to support the scheduled return of staff on shift tonight.”
Other disruption included a major outage at an exchange in Edinburgh, caused by the weather, which was affecting about 100,000 customers’ broadband on BT, EE and Plusnet in the city and surrounding area, BT’s incident management team said.
It was reported at 6.30am and engineers were on site working on the issue.
A BT Group spokesman said: “Severe storms and flooding in Edinburgh last night damaged some broadband equipment in our exchange buildings.
“As a result, some customers in Edinburgh and a small number of other locations in Scotland may be unable to connect to the internet.
“Engineers are doing everything they can to restore any affected customers as soon as possible.”
He added: “Due to the extent of the damage, we expect engineers to complete their work in the exchanges later today – at which point we’ll be able to assess any further related impact.
“Most phone and mobile services are not affected and we’re very sorry for any inconvenience.”
The Met Office has issued a yellow warning of thunderstorms for the eastern half of Scotland which is in force until midnight on Wednesday.
It warned that some places are likely to see “further severe thunderstorms”, but with “significant uncertainty in location and timing”.
The warning covers Central, Tayside and Fife, Angus, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Falkirk, Fife, Perth and Kinross and Stirling.