Scotland Weather Discussion - 20th November 2015 and Onwards...

[Northernlights]

Muffled wind at 6.00am this morning and you just know there are half crown flakes of snow falling and you look out and there  they are falling out of the dark .A fresh covering of about 3 inches and currently 0c. A true January winter morning.

[Hairy Celt]

A thin fresh white covering this morning... all very pretty for watching while having breakfast!

[Northernlights]

44 minutes ago, Northernlights said:

Muffled wind at 6.00am this morning and you just know there are half crown flakes of snow falling and you look out and there  they are falling out of the dark .A fresh covering of about 3 inches and currently 0c. A true January winter morning.

A photo from this morning

[skifreak]

Latest Met Office update indicates 26 hours of sustained hurricane force winds for the summit of CairnGorm, still looks promising for a big base building storm tonight into the morning with the FL only briefly getting just above the summits according to the MO. However GFS looks like another horrific 12hour+ disastrous thaw as a much wider mild sector comes through lifting the FL way about the summits, MO also looks much worse in that regard for the Western snowsports areas.

[Hawesy]

Morning all,

Nice photo NL, that would be great to wake up to!

We didn't manage an air frost last night (min was 0.3c). Looking at the numbers many other places were the same. Presumably a mix of wind and cloud cover keeping temps up.

http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/~brugge/amextremes.html

Last day of the month and it looks like many stations will come in a degree or so above average - with a few exceptions (such as Lerwick) where this January will end up below the mean.

 

 

[Northern Strath]

Well after snow from Friday through all Saturday, things really pepped up yesterday evening and our late night jaunt home from Inverness was pretty special and massively aided by the work from the snowplough guys ahead who work tirelessly keeping our end of the A9 passable when needed each winter. Getting to and from the A9 is usually the hard/fun part

 

The reward this morning is a lovely blanket of 35cms cover and a fair few feet of drifting to see in the surrounding area

 

Disappointing to think it will all be melting come tomorrow (very disappointing for the slopes as Ski rightly noted) but 2 months still left to play, which could throw up more of the same yet (hopefully) more prolonged. The Scottish Winter is certainly a manic, unpredictable beast as the last week has shown. Here's to February having something up it's sleeve. Currently -2.2C

[November13]

Often the heaviest snow in Ski areas is March and April. Plenty time.

[Northernlights]

Very white round the Firth today with a very  cold looking sky

Garden alive with birds at the feeders

[Northern Strath]

41 minutes ago, November13 said:

Often the heaviest snow in Ski areas is March and April. Plenty time.

Absolutely November, plenty snow on cairngorm yesterday but plenty bare heather visible too due to the severe winds. Fingers crossed we can get the ski centres filled in, minus those winds and with a period of consolidated cold thereafter

[peborant]

Northern Strath, you are arguably in one of the most favoured snow spots in the UK, aren't you? What's the record depth you've lived through up there?

Back to sleety rain, everything still white above 100m tho but temps up in school, 2.5 Now I just want to get home and get ready for some cold after the 13th of February!

[Northern Strath]

9 minutes ago, peborant said:

Northern Strath, you are arguably in one of the most favoured snow spots in the UK, aren't you? What's the record depth you've lived through up there?

Back to sleety rain, everything still white above 100m tho but temps up in school, 2.5 Now I just want to get home and get ready for some cold after the 13th of February!

Aye surely Peborant, if you're ever travelling the A9 north then count Drumochter then the corridor from Aviemore to Inverness as the snowiest parts

I was near Moy for winter 09/10, just a few miles north of here and the snow depth then was 90cm+, this was around 2/3rds of the way through it 

 

Tomatin had in excess of that after weeks with snow events similar to the last two days. Snow cover was mid December through to April. Winters in the 60's and 70s produced worse still and there are some great pictures online documenting here and the Carrbridge area buried in the snow. One elderly Tomatinite talks of having to dig down to find the front door on return to his house. Will we see those scenes again given the warming of the hemisphere? Who knows, would be a spectacle if we did

[Colsuth]

1 hour ago, Northernlights said:

Very white round the Firth today with a very  cold looking sky

Garden alive with birds at the feeders

Very jealous.  Dont know how far Burghead is from you but we have no snow.  A small covering yesterday that lasted about 3 hours.

[peborant]

Impressive Northern. I must admit that the only time I passed by the area at the end of March 2013 the Drumochter must have had in excess of 50cm of snow but as soon as you got past Aviemore there wasn't a covering. Is that a thing that can happen as well? It was a noticeable W-E difference. In the W it was sunny, Skye was absolutely beautiful under the sparkling sunshine and, at 5C it was one of the hottest spots in the UK hahah. Past Crianlarich three days later, cloud and snow cover were still there.  

[Northern Strath]

21 minutes ago, peborant said:

Impressive Northern. I must admit that the only time I passed by the area at the end of March 2013 the Drumochter must have had in excess of 50cm of snow but as soon as you got past Aviemore there wasn't a covering. Is that a thing that can happen as well? 

Definitely, and vice versa too, depending on the placement of the cold. Drumochter has some fantastic precipitation numbers and is very well placed for severe cold, great place to live for snow fans but remote too

[moffatross]

4 hours ago, skifreak said:

Latest Met Office update indicates 26 hours of sustained hurricane force winds for the summit of CairnGorm, still looks promising for a big base building storm tonight into the morning with the FL only briefly getting just above the summits according to the MO. However GFS looks like another horrific 12hour+ disastrous thaw as a much wider mild sector comes through lifting the FL way about the summits, MO also looks much worse in that regard for the Western snowsports areas.

Yep, those winds will be testing the infrastructure again and they're modelled much stronger over the East Highlands than the West Highlands. Looking forward (not) to the glib comments from Cairngorm Mountain/Natural Retreats about how they've got so much snow that they need to dig out the railway, yada, yada, yada ...

P.S. Our webcam kicked into life yesterday for a few hours, and did again this morning. Perhaps a bit of extra insolation as we approach February ? Not much to see, but at least we know the engine shed is still there 

[Bullseye]

More winds on the way and looking worse than Thursday/Friday for Central Belt at least. In model thread someone was posting images of possible polar low around western Scotland moving SE on Wednesday. Interesting few days coming up, as has been the winter in Scotland so far.

Edited January 31, 2016 by Bullseye

[moffatross]

10 minutes ago, Bullseye said:

In model thread someone was posting images of possible polar low around western Scotland moving SE on Wednesday.

I saw that too, but as I was aware of it, it's barely possible to predict the development of a polar low within a 6 hour time scale, so I have to assume that poster was incorrect in calling a feature modelled at 3-4 days off, a 'polar low'.

[peborant]

If it was to come to fruition though what would be its effects? I saw that for one 850hpa's were slightly higher in the core, above -4 actually, so would that not be bad in terms of snow in lower parts? Or is it one of those explosive features? Like for instance in Barcelona there was heavy snow at sea level with -2/-3 back in March 2010 (what days...). For some reason (the ocean?) in Scotland you need at least -6, better if -7/-8 tho for snow at sea level. However it's crazy how there are six factors for snow (dp, air temp, 850hpa,...care to elaborate?). 

Sorry for rambling on. snow is slowly melting but hills have a decent cover still, not greater than 10cm bar drifts I should think judging by eye, and temp is hovering around the 4C mark, it is meant to stay there until the end of the month, which will close a full 2.5C colder than December (6.8/4.3) in the hugely corrupted data off the school's rooftop (but hey this is telling us something). 

Skies grey as per usual. 

Edited January 31, 2016 by peborant

[spindrift1980]

15 hours ago, peborant said:

As for the guy who cancelled the expedition up the Ochils today, tbh you could have gone after ten as long as you had worn good clothing, I do not think that the amount of snow is extraordinary even in high altitude, as there has not been that much ppn. Having said which you would have had three times this morning which, for about 20-30min each, would have made you wish you'd never gone. Or maybe the complete opposite, depending on how you like your blizzards haha. 

It was more the road conditions which were worrying me to be honest.  When they put the warning up to amber, I thought I'd better not ask people to drive - the problem was that I didn't have time to assess the conditions in the morning and had to let people know the night before.  It doesn't look as though it was as bad as the MetO forecast suggested on Friday, and I feel a bit disappointed, but better to err on the side of caution I guess.  It's good to have regular updates on Ochils weather though, as I go there quite a lot!

[Hairy Celt]

Walkies up Catsback this afternoon which is a favourite for snowiness. However the heavy damp sky wasn't the most inspiring - one of those days where you think it might have been better to stay in front of the fire, till you stop for a coffee on the way home and bump into friends

Loch Ussie from the north

 

Mistiness up Strathconon

The remains of autumnal devastation - some atmospheric, some anthropomorphic

 

and this just because there's a place on that hillside called Bottacks - above Dingwall

There was some light snow and snizzle falling most of the time which added to the gloom and detracted from the crispness of the pictures. 

[Cheggers]

Busy battening downbthe hatches for tomorrow. Just about got away with a snow day here, but current drizzle making a mess now.

Nice run out with dug earlier.

[Ravelin]

So I take it today was the calm before the storm, or more accurately, the calm between the storms? A cool 3-4C here during the day, no wind, lots of high cloud so very overcast. 

Went for a walk around Loch Kinord (off road between Aboyne and Ballater) with the wife and dog. A covering of snow there which I wasn't really expecting, so it felt like a winter walk. Didn't take photos cos it was rather overcast so they'd have been nothing special. 

Not looking forward to the next bout of strong winds, which look to be forecast as stronger than the last lot, for us anyway. 

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Ravelin said:

So I take it today was the calm before the storm, or more accurately, the calm between the storms? A cool 3-4C here during the day, no wind, lots of high cloud so very overcast. 

Went for a walk around Loch Kinord (off road between Aboyne and Ballater) with the wife and dog. A covering of snow there which I wasn't really expecting, so it felt like a winter walk. Didn't take photos cos it was rather overcast so they'd have been nothing special. 

Not looking forward to the next bout of strong winds, which look to be forecast as stronger than the last lot, for us anyway. 

GFS is not backing down on this, the north-east is going to get crumpled tomorrow night:

It's not often you see windspeeds like that over the mainland. Take care everyone up there. 

Edited January 31, 2016 by CatchMyDrift

[Scottish-Irish Skier]

Pants. I'm supposed to be flying out of Aberdeen this afternoon.

Better set off as early as possible I guess and hope for the best.

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, scottish skier said:

Pants. I'm supposed to be flying out of Aberdeen this afternoon.

Better set off as early as possible I guess and hope for the best.

It isn't to peak until later in the day and overnight so you should be ok @scottish skier