moffatross

Hope the mods let this post stay here, or even suggest a forum where I can place a thread for it on netweather, to give it a bit more exposure. Anyway, some of you may be aware that we've already erected a fixed ski tow and engine on Lowther Hill in the South of Scotland and just waiting on a few bits from the fabricators, but we're itching to get it tested. We've had no 'public money', no grants, no awards. Just donations, gifts and untold hours of hard graft from about a dozen or so volunteers over the last 8 months to make it happen. Right now though, we're doing a crowd funder so that we can commission http://www.winterhighland.info/weather/ the undisputed master of (reliable) Scottish mountain webcams and weather stations, to provide us our own installation near the summit. We're looking to get enough weather geeks, ski freaks, and webcam peepers to cough up a few quid to get this installed ASAP, and if we do go over our goal, any leftovers will help us buy a few more metres of portable snow fencing so there's something white to look at after the Atlantic tries to do its usual trick of blasting it all off the hills. This is part of Weardale's power generation provision for the set-up at their volunteer run club in the English Pennines ... I've used 'justgiving' as most of us in the UK know & trust the site, and it only takes a minute to stick in your card details and contribute a bit towards something that everybody on this forum will get a benefit from. Really grateful if you can contribute. Linky below. https://www.justgiving.com/yimby/lowtherhillsskiclub#/

A few photos from the weekend. The sight of Ben Nevis from Meall a Bhuiridh never fails to impress ... Hardy campers at Glencoe ski centre ... Enjoying lunch after a ski out from 'Spikes Gully' off Aonach Mor summit ... Funky skies over Rannoch Moor on Saturday ...

Plenty snow still hanging on in the South. Eskdalemuir on Sunday ... Broad Law yesterday ...

Yep, I'm pretty sure we're getting as close to a true northerly Föhn wind as is possible too, as much of the low-lying snow has been hair-dryered away today. A few minutes ago, Glasgow airport was reporting 5 mph, whereas Eskdalemuir (nearest WS to Moffat) was reporting gusts over 50 mph. Windows here are rattling about & I've had to line the stove tray with ashes to stop the air drawing too fast.

I'd always assumed the BBC got their feed and guidance pretty much directly from the Met Office, but the BBC's take on tonight was very different from the Met Office's, so now I'm just left wondering ... Anyway, it's been snowing here apparently ....

Nope, not even D. Just Ayrshire & 'G'

The BBC look like they were really out on a limb. The light snow for Moffat at 11PM tonight that's been showing all day today on the Met Office feed has now gone away. Still weird I say. http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/gcvdc9ryg#?fcTime=1422489600

The BBC had the ppn east of Ayrshire/Galloway. That's what was so odd about it as it doesn't correlate with any of the modelled output chart from Euro4 / WRF etc. Of course, if the wee low has spun up deeper and more energetically than anticipated by the models, it will naturally bowl along a more easterly track.

Very odd. The BBC Scotland forecast suggested (5-10cm ? IIRC) snow running through Glasgow - Lanarkshire - Dumfriesshire/Borders from 9'ish to midnight. Fingers crossed but can't see it myself.

Unfortunately, as per LSS's post above, it looks like that's the stuff that's going to zap through Norn Ireland and then onto Englandshire. Dammit ... It's Scotland's snow !!

Nice photos, Stormeh. Funny enough, I was taking shots of footprints in the snow this morning too.

They're doing pretty well for snow in parts of Englandshire ... http://imgur.com/a/9ntbk

I mentioned earlier that the Met office feed was showing a short period of heavy snow Thursday night into Friday so I doubt if it'll take them by surprise. My guess is that they're more worried about getting the here & now right.

Now that the sun's gone down, we have a temperature drop and the white stuff seems to be sticking. Looking at the radar though, it does seem that Arran is sucking the Lion's share out of the showers en route to Moffat via Ayrshire. Reckon it'll be a very snowy island by the morning if this keeps up.

The rather whacky WRF high res gives a comedy interlude with 30-40 mm ppn modelled over some parts of the Southern Uplands by just midnight today, and by tomorrow evening, has modelled over 100 mm for some parts of the Galloway Hills.

Lots of cloud to the west, cold, and windy but nothing heavy enough punching through yet to white the green. The Met Office automated feed has Moffat in a 10 hour slot from 3PM today with 80%-90% chance of heavy snow ppn. Wait and see I suppose. I was also interested to see their feed indicates a few hours of heavy snow is likely Thursday night into Friday. I think that'll be the marginal stuff though and might send any white back to green ...

Wallop !! Short squall with a bit of hail, then light, fluffy snowflakes so nothing marginal in the transition here. Just got to wait and see just how much punch the showers can pack as they push across from the west.

The Weds/Thurs Met Office yellow warning has recently updated its snow figure to 5-10 cm at low level across Scotland/N Ireland.

Thanks Andy. We're heading to GS area too with a target on some lesser known lines. I just really don't want to end up skiing any gullies that have ended up in perfect condition for winter climbers

Can anyone please point me to a historical ppn radar animation (say for the last 24 hours) ? I'm trying to guestimate how much rain has fallen on a mountain area that I'm considering skiing tomorrow. I was @ Glencoe ski centre today (didn't put skis on) & it was hosing down at about 6C in the car park but looking at going further east tomorrow where hopefully the snow won't now be 'bullet-proof' neve. Thanks :-)

The Met Office envisage a total reset to business as usual next week. It's batten down the hatch time again ... http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/ "UK Outlook for Tuesday 27 Jan 2015 to Thursday 5 Feb 2015: ... Drier conditions should then follow across the UK on Wednesday before we then move into a potentially very disturbed spell of weather with gales or severe gales in many places. Turning somewhat colder with an increasing risk of snow in the north."

Yep, sublimation leads to quite rapid loss in low dew points. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublimation_(phase_transition)

Anomalous radar propagation ... 'anoprop' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomalous_propagation "Inversion of temperature exists too ahead of warm fronts, and around thunderstorms' cold pool. Since precipitation exists in those circumstances, the abnormal propagation echoes are then mixed with real rain and/or targets of interest, which make them more difficult to separate."

The Met Office weather warnings have quietly been lifted too ...

Light snow falling in Moffat too on the edge of the incoming precipitation, Queensberry has disappeared and cloud level is <1,000 ft.