spindrift1980
-
Posts
482 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Forums
Blogs
Gallery
Events
Learn About Weather and Meteorology
Community guides
Posts posted by spindrift1980
-
-
what about aviemore, been here a week and seen sweet sod all, this is so bloody close, but i can see us here in Aviemore getting nought.
Why don't you go up in the funicular? Plenty of snow up in the Ptarmigan bowl.
-
It's certainly been dreich and wet in the Lanarkshire/Glasgow area but there hasn't been a particularly exceptional amount of rain. Looks like the east is getting a taste of some traditional western weather!
-
Not sure how well the ski resorts are doing out of this so far. A quick check this morning shows Glenshee certainly has improved (from a poor starting point), Lecht doesn't seems to have suffered from it's low height but hasn't really had much accumulation either, and Cairngorm may have done quite well as the funicular tunnel is blocked it says. I suspect a degree or two cooler would have helped a lot and I didn't notice any of the snow gates being closed overnight so it can't have been that heavy.
Ravelin
Not as well as they'd hoped, unfortunately, according to posters on http://www.winterhighland.info/forum/
The funicular blockage at Cairn Gorm must just be down to the high winds drifting the existing snow cover as apparently very little snow has made it that far north and west, with flurries only rather than the 'incessant snow' forecast by MWIS. Glenshee has had a lot less than originally forecast - the main precipitation appears to have been further south in Perthshire/Stirlingshire/Fife, with less making it to Glenshee than forecast. Hopefully we won't be back to square one after Sunday.
-
Hopefully any mild period following the snowfall won't be too prolonged or damaging like last year's Christmas mega-thaw. MWIS says:
Extensive rainfall on particularly southern and eastern Scottish mountain areas until the end of the weekend. Snow will
become confined to higher areas in the Scottish Highlands, and apart from on highest summits there will be a thaw of
lying snow on Sunday.
But:
There is now a strong signal for freezing levels to drop back to around 750m after Christmas Day, whilst further south,
higher summits will intermittently fall below freezing point.
-
Just done another rainfall count on GFS 6z forecast for my location, got to just over 90mm between Wed night and Friday morning. Torn between excitement of going up a hill to see that much snow and fear that this might happen again.
MWIS forecast for the SE Highlands area (covering most of Perthshire/Ochils and the hillier parts of Fife and Stirlingshire) on Thursday is going for 'incessant snow' above 550m (and presumably incessant rain below that.)
"Snow falling most or all night will continue most of all daylight, heaviest eastern mountains, where accumulations very considerable, and whiteout prolonged. Rain below 550m".
Tellingly, the 'outlook' section doesn't venture any speculation on what the weather might do after Friday.
-
Some wet flakes of snow in the air in the west end of Glasgow about half an hour ago. Nothing here yet. Temperature sitting just barely above freezing.
-
Was slightly surprised to see the snow intact this morning given the forecasts of rain moving in later in the night. About 3cm of rather wet, heavy snow. Side roads are all slush-fests.
-
Looking at the radar and combining with the updates on here, the area of darker red appearing as snow as opposed to the other lighter returns east of this band.
Not sure about that radar. It said it was snowing here when it was dry and now says 'rain/snow' when it's very much snow/snow!
-
I live 15 miles south east of Glasgow, over 100 meters and it has been raining for 20 minutes! You have to laugh!
Whereabouts are you Mr Frost? I'm surprised you've got rain because it started as snow here without any rain first and I'm only 70 metres above sea level. Are you out Lanark way? Might be slightly warmer further south.
-
Snowing for the last few minutes here now too. A light dusting lying on everything.
-
Evening all, back for another winter of lamppost watching! Hopefully there'll be more to watch than last year.
Hoping to see a few flakes here before bedtime but not confident there'll be much left to see here by the morning. Had a wander up on the Campsies today and on the way back the temperature was hanging at about -1 or -1.5 north and west of Cumbernauld but rose up to around 0.5 to 1C down here near the Clyde. Not sure if this temperature difference is going to continue till the precipitation arrives.
Very jealous of Northern Strath up there by Loch Glascarnoch - fantastic pictures! Got a nice clear view of a snowy Stob Binnein and Ben More (and other mountains in the Crianlarich area) from the Campsies this afternoon though.
-
I'm visiting the snow at Aonach Beag (not Aonach Mor) this weekend, and will report back.
I always get these two confused, probably because I always forget that, despite its name, Aonach Beag is actually higher of the two! (for the uninitiated, Aonach Mor means big ridge in Gaelic, and Aonach Beag means small ridge).
I look forward to your report on how the patches in the west are faring.
-
I thought I would give this thread a bump since it now seems certain that 3 patches (and possibly a fourth) have survived in Garbh Coire Mor of Braeriach in the Cairngorms. Last year only the 'Sphinx' patch survived at this location (and it was much smaller) but this year the 'Pinnacles' patch has also survived, as has a smaller patch known as Michaelmas Fare. There is also a further small fourth patch which may survive but is vulnerable to any possible milder spell.
Photos, discussion and observations can be found here: http://www.winterhig...ad.php?2,143591
The main reasons for the greater persistence of snow this year are probably:
- more snowfall on westerly winds during winter/spring;
- more freeze/thaw cycles as compared to the colder winters of 2009/10 and 2010/11, thereby toughening up the old snow;
- lower temperatures and more snowfall during spring leading to a net gain rather than net loss of snow;
- a cool, wet summer.
The generally cold weather in September and October with sporadic light to moderate snow accumulations at altitude has also helped.
There are two surviving patches in the West Highlands, on Aonach Mor and in Observatory Gully of Ben Nevis, but due to the more maritime climate there it seems that survival is not yet assured there, although it seems fairly likely. I'm sure Firefly will be visiting these patches and will be along at some point to fill in details.
-
2
-
-
Cairngorm hasn't got much snow at the moment just a light dusting any that's falling is melting very quickly
Summit, 3600ft
That's not Cairn Gorm! (The layout of webcams on the WinterHighland website is a bit confusing, it's an easy mistake to make). That's the summit of Meall a'Bhuiridh in Glencoe which is several hundred feet lower and a long way to the south-west of the Cairngorms.
The summit of Braeriach in the Cairngorms shows a good few cm. of snow cover in the photos from Wednesday at the link below:
-
1
-
-
Reports of snow showers at altitude in Glencoe and Lochaber again this morning. Looks like a slight dusting on the Ben Nevis cam above.
-0.6C on the summit of Aonach Mor but as low as -1.9C further east on the summit of Cairn Gorm at 10am.
-
Accumulated snow on the Nevis range
That seems to be an image from February 17th for some reason (rather than a live picture).
It was 0.3C on Aonach Mor at 10am (see link below), so the Ben Nevis summit plateau should be slightly below freezing, and showers are piling in from the west (there's currently a heavy squally rain shower here (just outside Glasgow), so I imagine it will see some snow today.
http://www.weatheron...&TYP=__&SEITE=0
-0.5C at Cairn Gorm summit at 10am so should be cold enough for snow - not sure if any showers will make it far enough east though.
-
I'm almost certain that there was a dumping of several inches of snow south and east of Glasgow the following week, on the evening of Friday 17 February 1995 to be precise (I recall this because of a family birthday) but can't recall anything about the previous week.
It was almost all gone by the following afternoon though - a pale imitation of what was to come in December '95, with its sub -20C temperatures, or even the heavy snowfalls in February 1996.
-
Back to the Cairngorms again today!...
Still a healthy 50+ patches visible on those hills which it is possible to see from Carn na Drochaide, just north-west of Braemar. Not a huge amount of melting in the last week, which has seen temperatures not much above freezing on the tops at some points. Warming up though, and tomorrow looks like having some rain plus the 'hairdryer' south-west winds which have been absent for a while. Hopefully there should be a decent amount still around by 1 August when Firefly and his colleagues do their next Scotland-wide survey though.
Some photos from today (will link to the others later for those who are interested):
Laird's Tablecloth, Beinn a' Bhuird:
The smaller, shallower patches have taken a hit since last week but the main patch not much changed.
Coire nan Clach, Beinn a' Bhuird:
Ben Macdui:22 patches visible from this angle but I believe there are others still on the Macdui/Cairn Gorm plateau
Beinn Mheadhoin: Forgot to mention last week that there is still at least one patch on this remote mountain
-
2
-
-
Interesting photo of Carn Ban Mor there, Firefly. I've found a photo I took of it from near Ruthven Barracks on 7 July 2010 which shows a snow patch and a similar shape of grass indicating late-lying snow. There was more snow still there on 7 July 2010 than there was on 31 May 2009 by the looks of it.
I've seen the areas of grass amongst heather indicating late snow lie often in places like Glen Shee. Also, on hills in the west like Ben Lui where there is mostly grass and very little heather you can often see the 'dormant' grass emerge in patches in late spring/early summer as you say, from under areas of late-lying snow.
Feel free to post any relevant photos on WinterHighland or to add them to your archive. I should get back on WinterHighland eventually, once I have access to my own computer. I notice Adam Watson made a post this afternoon about the Laird's Tablecloth, saying the western section was split into 3, so one of the small patches in my photo must have broken up in the last couple of days.
MWIS has the freezing level not far above the summits again later this week, but 'becoming very much warmer' from Saturday onwards so the rate of melting might be about to increase.
-
A few more Cairngorms photos (click thumbnails for larger images) from 14 July:
Braeriach:
Ben Macdui (Coire an Lochan Uaine):
Monadh Mor:
Full gallery here:
http://s1161.photobucket.com/albums/q503/AJODowd/Cairngorms%203%206%2012%20and%2014%207%2012/
-
A couple of comparisons showing loss of snow at a couple of sites in the southern part of the main Cairngorms range between 3 June and 14 July. Firefly, please let me know if I have misidentified these sites! Although taken from different angles and distances the melting is very noticeable, although perhaps not as much as you might expect over 6 weeks at this time of year.
Thumbnails can be clicked for bigger images.
The Laird's Tablecloth, Beinn a' Bhuird:
3 June:
14 July (3 patches have now broken off the main patch and various surrounding patches have melted - the largest patch is still at least a couple of hundred metres long though, I think)
Beinn Bhrotain:
3 June:
14 July (shows a smaller area of the hill, but the patch on the right is what remains if the largest patch in the 3 June photo - this patch lasted until the turn of August/September in 2011)
I have various other photos of the southern Cairngorms taken from Sgor Mor above Glen Dee on 14 July which I will link to later (Firefly, I will also try and add these to the Winter Highland thread but my laptop always seems to have problems with it).
My general (although fairly inexpert) opinion was that there is more snow around than the same time last year, although some of the remaining patches are quite small and broken-up. A lot of the very longest-lasting sites are not visible from Sgor Mor of course, but there were for instance 29 patches (including all the smallest fragments) on Monadh Mor.
-
2
-
-
-1.5C on the summit of Cairngorm at 7am today, with a dusting of fresh snow, and still below freezing at 11am. Chilly for June!
-
Not sure exactly where this topic belongs, please move if incorrect.
On April 30th, Campbell Island had a maximum of only 3.2C.
It's a spot of land way to the south of New Zealand, on a similar latitude to Birmingham. It's climate would be enough to drive most members here to madness - a mere 700 hours of annual sunshine hours (half of London), and average summer highs of only 12C.
http://en.wikipedia....nd,_New_Zealand
Given that the sea is still relatively warm (maybe 9C) in April, and that the island clearly has a maritime climate, the maximum of only 3.2C I think is quite impressive.
I'd like to compare that with the lowest maximum in the UK for the equivalent month of October, if possible.
According to the Met Office, the record low October maximum for the UK is 0.4C on 17 October 1973 at Glenmore Lodge, Inverness-shire.
Glenmore Lodge is an outdoor centre SE of Aviemore in the Cairngorms (central Highlands of Scotland) which sits in a valley at about 350m asl, just north of extensive mountain plateaux rising to 1300m. There will have been many, many days in October over the years, however, where temperatures on the Cairngorm plateaux at 1200m-1300m asl won't have come anywhere near rising above freezing, but the Met O appear not to include mountain readings (such as Cairn Gorm summit) in their records of daily/monthly low temperatures.
The climate features of Campbell Island which you describe sound not unlike the Orkney or Shetland Islands north of the British mainland.
-
Unusual for recent years perhaps (Since the mid 90's) but I bet it would be fairly typical prior to the late 80's.
Although there was undoubtedly more snow in the years up until the late 80s than since, I don't think the current state of play would be regarded as typical even in earlier decades, as I believe that maximum snow depth on the Cairngorm plateaux in most years has historically been reached in April, with a net overall loss of snow cover (as opposed to the current net gain) being well-established by mid-May in many years.
Admittedly I'm going more from what I have read on the subject than personal experience as my hillgoing only started in the mid-90s when I was in my teens, but Adam Watson has published a study of estimated consolidated snow cover on the Ben Macdui plateau from 1947-2010 (albeit on1st June of each year rather than May). He found quite large variations from year-to-year (from 98% on a number of occasions, 97% in 2010, to just 2% in 2003) but no trend from 1947-1986. There has been a trend of decline from 1987 onwards, however, although not statistically significant when the snowier years of 2008-2010 were included. There was an exceptional low trough in the years 2003-2007, with far lower % snow cover in these years than any others. I think last year would also have been very low due to the very warm spring weather despite the cold and snowy first half of winter.
Firefly will no doubt correct anything which I have got wrong in all of this!
Scotland Regional Discussion 18th December 2012>
in Regional
Posted · Edited by spindrift1980
Similar scenario with the snow-line in the Pentlands today - went out for a wander there, inspired by the webcam image posted on this thread earlier today! Decent snow cover above 300m and a smattering on ground above 200m east of about Harthill. Nice to get a wee taste of winter without having to travel far. Will post a couple of pics later.
Sleet most of the way back on the mate, and a bit of proper snow around Harthill with the car thermometer reading 1C.
EDIT: is there a filter on this board which automatically changes M 8 (with no space) to 'mate'?!!