The sportscotland Avalanche Information Service forecasts can now be sent by text to your phone

Walkers, climbers and mountaineers heading for Scotland’s mountains this winter can now get regular avalanche information sent direct to their mobile phones.

The sportscotland Avalanche Information Service, which posts daily information about snowpack conditions and avalanche risk, has expanded its service with a free text forecast facility.

To subscribe to any of the five areas covered, the user has to send a text, which is charged at normal network rates, to the SAIS’s 88020 number.

The user should send the following keywords for the relevant area: northern Cairngorms, saisnc; southern Cairngorms, saissc; Lochaber, saislo; Glencoe, saisgl and for Creag Meagaidh saiscm.

The SAIS service will send an automated confirmation text and from then on the user will receive a forecast to their phone at about 6pm each day.

To unsubscribe, users should send the message TERMINATE to the 88020 number, which will stop texts for all the areas for which they have signed up.

The online version of the forecast service is still available, and there is now a mobile version for smartphones, which offers a faster loading, pared-down site but with full forecast information. Users with web-enabled phones can simply visit www.sais.gov.uk from their mobiles to access the mobile version.

All five areas are forecast to have mountain areas at considerable risk of avalanche tomorrow. The Met Office has also issued yellow alerts for snow for all Scottish regions from Strathclyde northwards, with ice likely in the Borders and south-west Scotland, extending south into northernmost parts of England.

Wintry showers are also expected in Northern Ireland.

Strong westerly winds are likely to cause fresh windslab to be deposited on leeward sides of mountains, with aspects from north-east through to south-east having the most risk of avalanche.