spindrift1980
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Posts posted by spindrift1980
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A noteworthy occurrence is that the Avalanche Information Service in Scotland has deciced to start providing limited forecasts for the Lochaber and high Cairngorm areas with immediate effect. Usually the volume of snowfall and number of layers within the snowpack in early winter is such that it is only considered necessary to provide these forecasts from mid-December onwards.
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The link below is to a satellite image of the UK from today. Although there is quite a lot of cloud you can see the snow covering much of Scotland, as well as NE England and parts of Wales.
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime/single.php?T103311125
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Glasgow and the Central Lowlands are officially out of this club as of now.
Lovely and white outside after last nites relatively short spell of snow but enough to cheer us up and declare us non-members of the now snow club.
Good luck to the rest of you who are still awaiting some.
Absolutely,
Had to travel from Motherwell to Perth and back via Kinross and Glasgow today and nowhere has escaped the snow. A lot of places, including here, were still in the no-snow club at 10pm last night so don't lose hope snow-free people!
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Always thought this thread was only for folk from the west country or Ireland in the past, but I still qualify at the moment as has been bright and bone dry here. No offence, but I hope to get my ticket out of the 'no snow' club fairly soon....
Have had a few snowy hillwalks over the last few weeks and is currently below -4C though so not feeling too deprived.
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-14.8C, Braemar, Aberdeenshire
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The answer is probably "yes and no".
South-east England's severest weather comes from "easterly" setups with high pressure extending from Greenland to Scandinavia and a sustained flow from the continent, and on rare occasions (e.g. January 1963, February 1947) those setups can persist without a break and result in mean monthly temperatures of -3C or lower. Scotland's severest weather comes from "northerly" setups which are usually characterised by sharp cold spells separated by less cold interludes, and thus mean monthly temperatures in months dominated by this setup tend not to be as low, even in inland parts of the northeast. So in that sense, the highlighted words hold true.
On the other hand, there's little doubt that inland parts of northeast Scotland experience relatively short-lived spells of severely cold and snowy weather (say 1-2 weeks long) with much greater frequency than south-east England, and while the severest months aren't as cold as those in SE England they are often a lot snowier and, again, occur more frequently, so on that basis there's a strong case for dismissing what I said earlier.
Thanks for your answer - makes sense to me. I think that would correspond with my general impressions, anyway. Maybe more a qualification of what you said earlier rather than an outright dismissal!
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one of the ironies of UK winters is that southern England is more prone to prolonged severe cold than lowland Scotland despite, on average, seeing milder winters and considerably less snow, due to scenarios of persistent continental air like 1947 and 1963, whereas Arctic-dominated winters like last year tend to have cold spells separated by less cold interludes. It sounds to me as if Scotland's most disruptive winter was probably the 1954/55 one which was similarly cold in January and February and had some particularly heavy snowfalls.
Out of curiosity, would the highlighted words hold true of inland parts of the north-east lowlands of Scotland as against the south of England? My perception has always been of inland parts of north-east Scotland lowlands (eg, the areas surrounding the Inverurie-Huntly-Keith corridor on the A96) as being probably the area of lowland UK most prone to prolonged severe cold spells but I can appreciate that continental air masses are not rhe same factor here as they are in SE England.
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I do sometimes become slightly irritated by old folks (or sometimes not so old folks) making implausible claims about what the weather was like when they were young (summers generally described as resembling the climate of the Mediterranean and winters resembling the climate of Siberia, or at least the high Cairngorm plateaux) despite statistical and photographic evidence to the contrary.
A quick Google search threw up the following good example from an inhabitant of my neck of the woods describing his youth in the 20s and 30s. I particularly like the bit about the bitterly cold winters starting in October!!
"in the Winter the weather was very cold with plenty of snow and ice, most of the boys had ice skates and we used to skate to school. ...... The Summers in those days were much earlier and warmer than they are today, The Winters were very long and bitterly cold starting in October and lasting to the following March"
Now that I've typed this I realise that I sound like a grumpy old man myself - sorry for any offence to old folks!!
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I think there is a good chance that the Cheviots would have some cover at the moment. Lower hills in the Southern Uplands of Scotland around Moffat and even the Ochil Hills above Stirling have (or have had in the very recent past) some accumulations.
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Don't lose hope! Canada has started to get going again. And the blobs over Scotland are still there!
Re: the 'blobs' - the extent of upland snow cover in Scotland (both highlands and southern uplands) is already quite impressive for the time of year, as the link to the attached satellite image shows. Was out and about at the weekend and most things above 600m or so have got pretty good cover.
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime/single.php?A103191250
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Although the snow cover is still pretty superficial and vulnerable to being stripped away by milder weather, the Scottish ski centres are all looking pretty nicely covered at the moment (Glenshee webcam image attached)...will be interesting to see if the season fulfills its early promise.
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Sadly I believe we are at least 10 years 'late' with the seasons reverting back to what they ought to be (Autumn and winter that is!!!) and if proven correct we will not have many years of them to look forward too before entering another (worse) version of the late 80's and the nineties.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by being "at least 10 years 'late' with the seasons reverting back to what they ought to be" - are you suggesting that we might be in a temporary cool(ish) phase before rampant global warming!? I think the methodology of trying to analyse something in advance by trying to fit it into a pattern of what we are told is going to happen seems a bit shaky....
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I suspect that everyone's perceptions of this will vary hugely depending on their experiences in their own locale (and possibly also their age!)
For most of Scotland, last winter went far beyond simply being harsh 'by recent standards' and although the spring was notably dry and quite sunny, the summer failed to deliver any real warmth or sustained settled or sunny weather (I suppose that it is summer in Scotland mind you.....) so my perception would be completely different to the original poster's perception. Autumn has been a decent mix of bright days with frosty mornings and blustery wet days (with some more than respectable early season snowfalls over the higher hills at times) and does seem like a fairly 'typical' autumn, if such a thing exists.
Taking a wider view, there does seem to be have been a more pronounced seasonal divide in the last couple of years, I think, overall. I'd like to think that was a sustained pattern as I much prefer it that way, but who can say...
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Is actually not desperately mild up here - in fact, not only is it snowing above 900m on many hills through the west highlands, but in the words of one poster on the Winterhighland website (http://www.winterhighland.info/forum/read.php?2,124508,page=25):
"Prolonged and heavy snow now falling at Nevis Range above around 900m with drifting in the strong wind.This could be the day for lasting snow at the top of Observatory Gully. "
Certainly, the summit of Aonach Mor was looking well-plastered on the webcam a moment ago, and is now a complete whiteout!
Often it might seem relatively mild at low altitude, but the higher parts at least of west highland mountains can gain as much or more snow through westerly zonal-type weather patterns than in the type of weather which predominated last winter. The consensus seems to be that a significant factor in the relatively low amount of survivals generally this year (given the sheer volume of winter snowfall) was the relative lack of westerly storms last winter.
In summary, there seems at least a chance then that lasting snowfall will be established on Ben Nevis this week. The consensus also appears to be that the one remaining patch in the Cairngorms (Garbh Coire Mor on Braeriach) has already survived to lasting winter snow (barring some freakish outbreak of warm weather)
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Snow cover was still pretty much 100% at 1100m on Cairngorm at 4pm as this webcam image shows:
http://www.cairngormmountain.co.uk/news/webcams
Cover starting to look a bit patchy at 700m on the Lecht, however. Looks like a major thaw on the cards with the mild temperatures and 'hairdryer' winds forecast for the near future. Currently 6.3C on the summit of Cairngorm and 15.3C in Aboyne! Will be interesting to see what remains in the usual places after the thaw...
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A very interesting and informative post from Dr Adam Watson over on the Winterhighland messageboard. It appears likely that lasting winter snows have now been established at the Garbh Coire Mor patch. Not sure about the situation in the west..don't think there has been as much snow. As far as I can gather there are still 2 patches at Ben Nevis' Observatory Gully and one (probably) at Aonach Beag.
"There has been a deep snowfall on Ben Avon and Beinn a' Bhuird on Tuesday afternoon and on Wednesday, accompanied by heavy drifting. I saw the hills in good light Wednesday afternoon. The eastern Cairngorms showed some boulders along exposed ridges and tors but otherwise were completely white, and with deep drifts facing south and southeast. On Tueday there was a strong N wind, Wednesday also strong and NW, though at times in the afternoon about 3.30 pm blowing from W. The east Cairngorms were out of the sun, and smoking with drifting. Snowline was at 1800 feet on Morven, with drifts several feet deep in hollows on the SE side of the hill. There was not much on the Buck, but the Ladder Hills had had a heavy fall. Very little on Mount Keen, Braid Cairn, and Mount Battock but of course they are further south and seldom get much snow during autumn snowfalls. Brown Cow Hill had more than Morven, and already the Broon Coo's White Calf has a nice wreath. Even at 800 feet on Kerloch the wind on Tuesday and Wednesday was strong, about Beaufort 5 and at times 6 during squalls. When I left at 3.40 pm Ben Avon and Beinn a' Bhuird were out of sight in a fresh snowstorm, and also the Ladder Hills, and Morven was getting the edge of it. I would judge that there has been a lot of new snow blown on to the old snow below Sphinx Ridge. The snowfall has been so deep and the drifting so great that I would be very surpirsed if this were not lasting winter snow at the Sphinx patch."
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Tentative signs of better weather for snow patch retention/survival from the 'planning outlook' Mountain Weather Info Service forecast:
"Showers on western, or by late Tuesday mainly northern mountains will turn to snow to a low level as a plunge
of very cold air covers Britain. Snowfall may well be extensive Cairngorms and northwest Highlands."
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Apart from ski-ing, I've sometimes wondered whether the number of snow-holes which are dug by winter training course participants and other walkers in certain locations in the Cairngorms, like Ciste Mhearaid, diminishes the longevity of the snow there by taking away snow and letting air circulate amongst it? Perhaps by the time it gets down to the stage where the snow is in patches, it isn't really a factor?
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What about RAF West Freugh (Stranraer)
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Machrihanish is some way north and west of where your map places it!
It is on the Kintyre peninsula (see link)
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Mountain weather 'planning outlook' below from mwis.org.uk seems to suggest mega-snowfall over the Southern Uplands:
"Cold throughout the coming week and the Easter Weekend. By Wednesday (31st) there will have been a considerable dump of snow from the eastern and southern Highlands of Scotland south to Cumbria, with the whole of the Southern Uplands bearing the brunt - up to 3 ft of 'level' snow will lie in enormous drifts. Beyond, further snow will fall almost daily, mainly on northern and western mountains, as clusters of heavy showers come in, although at low levels there will be gradual thawing."
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This morning's snow in East Kilbride is pretty much all gone in drizzle and 4C. Looks very marginal but seems like a good chance of catching some more over the next couple of days.
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2c and moderate snow in East Kilbride at 200m asl. A couple of centimetres accumulated despite ground being wet yesterday.
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Snowing big fluffy flakes here in East Kilbride at about 200-250m asl. Couple of centimetres accumulated so far. Nothing but drizzly rain so far down in Motherwell.
Snow And Ice In The Northern Hemisphere
in Spring Weather Discussion
Posted
The only 'place' that has snow is north of York? Only somewhere between a third and a half of Great Britain's surface area then!