spindrift1980

Got a snow fix yesterday on Ben Vorlich, above Loch Earn. Plenty of snow cover on the higher hills. Crampons necessary to reach the top of Ben Vorlich in the opinion of any sane person (not that this stopped some people who had neither crampons nor ice axe)!

One notable feature so far this winter is that the vast majority of precipitation falling at high levels in the Scottish mountains has been snow, and so the build up of lying snow on north/north-eastern sides of the mountains from the near-constant stormy weather has been pretty impressive. During the very mildest winter spells, rain at all levels of the mountains can be expected, and (so far) it has been very different to the very mildest of winters such as (off the top of my head) 2002/3 or 2005/6. Yesterday was pretty mild though with rain at most levels. Looks like things should cool down a bit again towards the end of the week. IMBY, it's been as rotten as anywhere else. November was actually pretty chilly, with total number of air and ground frosts into double figures, but I think there was a patchy ground frost twice in December, and the only wintry precipitation has been a few bouts of sleet or wet snow which didn't lie (but gave a slight temporary covering on higher ground a few miles up the road). A far cry from 2009/10 and the beginning of 2010/11. Even 2011/12, which wasn't a classic, had some lying snow in December. Overall, pretty poor fare at low levels then, but definitely not the very mildest, with maxes mostly around average but a notable lack of sub-zero temperatures.

The stormy weather is at least giving the higher ground a lot of drifting snow - quite a contrast to the extreme mildness earlier this month. Some very iffy conditions on the hills though with lots of unconsolidated snow. I lifted this picture of drifts outside the ski centre at Glenshee from one of the blogs (check them out for loads of snow pics!) on the avalanche information service website at http://www.sais.gov.uk/

I would just like to say at this point that my username was not chosen because it is a type of wool!

Thunder and lightning here a minute ago - thought I was imaging things. No major precipitation though.

I seem to remember London getting a red warning for a few centimetres of snow, a while back. I think their model of assessing these warnings partly on the basis of the population density of the affected area is seriously flawed. Surely dangerous weather is dangerous weather, wherever it is? Meanwhile, back in EK, the wet snow shower didn't last long, and the sun is oot!

Snowing now in East Kilbride.

Bawbag didn't seem all that bad compared to the New Year storm which came a bit later (IMBY, at least).

For the West Highlands, I think that might well be something of an understatement, if the current charts are accurate! MWIS currently reckons there'll be a prolonged period of thaw on all but the highest summits after the cold snap is over, mind you. Presumably he thinks westerlies and southerlies will be in charge from next week onwards.

MWIS medium-term outlook is currently going with: "Very cold from Monday, extremely so (for November) mid-week. Snow widespread, especially northern mountains, and to low level mid-week. There is a strong signal in forecast models from all the main centres of cold conditions through to the end of the month. There will be further snowfall on many mountain areas." I think that constitutes a ramp by the cautious, sober standards of the MWIS. Not quite in the same league as Scotster's trip to Torridon, but I had a wander in the Ben Lawers neck of the woods last Saturday and it was looking pretty wintry. (For those who are interested, the main sunlit peak is An Stuc, rather than Ben Lawers itself).

As you may be aware, there has been a noticeable drop-off in temperature and some significant snowfall over the tops of most parts of the Highlands recently, and so hopefully Firefly won't mind me quoting his post on WinterHighland of the final 'scores' with regard to lasting snow patches: "A total of six patches survived through to the new season of 2013-14. Breakdown as follows:Ben Nevis - three patches (Point 5 Gully, Observatory Gully x 2)Aonach Beag - one patchBraeriach - two patchesThis year was notable for the massive SE storm which blew on 22-24 March. This filled in a lot of NW and west facing hollows. But for a very mild summer, these hollows could have held lasting snow (Coire Loch nan Eun of Lochnagar! Ciste Mhearad of Carn Ban Mòr). We saw huge wreaths on unusual west-facing aspects right through until August and September, and remarkably snow persisted into June on the Lammermuirs." It's worth reading (in particular) the last couple of pages of the thread at WinterHighland for detailed reports and photos: http://www.winterhighland.info/forum/read.php?2,154638,page=29 Hats off again to Firefly and the others who were intrepid enough to visit the long-lasting snow sites late in the season, when the patches become small and difficult to reach, requiring serious effort and commitment (not to mention resilience to cold!)

The summit of Cairn Gorm registered -7.3C at 7am. It's now soared up a couple of degrees: http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weather/maps/city?3&TIME=std&LANG=en&WMO=03065&ART=temperatur&LEVEL=140 Another frosty morning in Lanarkshire. 1 degrees C on the car thermometer just before 9am.

Frost on the car this morning, snow on the hills - must be time for summer lurkers like me to return to the kilted weather thread! To whet the appetite for winter, here's a shot from the hills above Bridge of Orchy yesterday showing the snow line at about 800m. A cracking day with sunny spells and some quite heavy snow showers.

A nice shot from yesterday of Cairn Gorm from Chris Townsend, no less, from his website http://www.christownsendoutdoors.com/

Decent snow cover on the higher parts of Cairn Gorm this morning from the recent showers on north/north-westerly winds. Winter is coming!... http://www.cairngormmountain.org/webcams/live/ptarmigan1.jpg

The current MWIS forecast suggests the possibility of snow from Sunday evening onwards: "...mixture of constant rain and heavy squally showers, of hail & snow on Scottish Munros, where freezing level will drop to and intermittently below 1050m from Sunday night (an unusually lengthy cold period for September). Cloud will frequently shroud higher areas." Looks like the temperature will then rise again later next week. Currently, the temperature on the summit of Cairn Gorm is hovering around 0C.

Thought I would bump this thread with a belated update: So, thanks to intrepid volunteers such as Blair above, we know that the number of snow patches remaining in Scotland as at 20 August was the highest since this survey was initiated in 2008, the figures being: 2008 - 34 patches 2009 - 35 2010 - 34 2011 - 36 2012 - 72 2013 - 81 30 of the 81 were to be found in Ben Nevis and the surrounding 4000-footers in Lochaber, with 49 in the Cairngorms, 1 on Lochnagar and 1 on Creag Meagaidh, in the central Highlands. A fair number of these will have gone since 20th August though, as many of the patches are now becoming small and vulnerable to sun, wind and rain. More details can be found at the link below. http://www.winterhighland.info/forum/read.php?2,154638

The pattern of snow accumulation in Scotland is, unsurprisingly, given difference in altitude and proximity to the sea, quite different to the Alps. Even the highest of Scottish mountains are typically subject to numerous freeze-thaw cycles during the period from late autumn to late spring. Equally, weeks at a time of freezing conditions or weeks of thaw are possible, so there really is no definitive pattern. At the longest lasting snow sites - usually gullies, corries or natural hollows - enormous drifts build up in winter and even the mildest spell of weather won't fully diminish the build-up until the following summer or autumn (hence this thread!) but on more open slopes most of the general snow cover can melt at times during mild spells in winter. The downhill ski-centres in Scotland are therefore located in areas prone to drifting on the prevailing winds, and where the topography has good snow-holding capability, as the more general cover typical in the Alps can't be relied upon.I believe it is probably typical for the greatest depth at the long-lasting snow sites to be reached some time around April, but sometimes not until May in cold springs. However, the arrival of lasting drifted-in snow at these same sites is usually some time in mid to late October (sometimes as early as September) in the more central quasi-continental climate of the Cairngorms but slightly later on average in the more maritime climate of the high western hills such as Ben Nevis. In any area, it can be November before this occurs or, very occasionally, early December if the colder weather is late in arriving.

Those photos aren't Glencoe though! That's the much gentler and more rounded terrain of Carn Ban Mor above Glen Feshie, on the western edge of the high Cairngorm plateaux. Will have gathered a lot of snow on south-easterly blizzards earlier in the year.

The snowpatch situation does look quite healthy at the moment. Firefly and other volunteers will (I think!) be doing the usual survey around about the 1st of July and it looks highly likely that the patches will be greater in number and size than has been typical for the time of year over the last 20 years or so. The relative lack of big westerly/SWly storms to blow the snow into the most long-lasting N/E facing patch sites might still ultimately be a factor in the number of survivals until next winter but, up to this point, the cold spring appears to have more than compensated for this. Some of the long-lasting sites will have been gaining snow into late spring when often melting will have been well under way. The coldness of the spring is illustrated by the fact that the temperature at the summit of Cairn Gorm (1245m/4084ft) failed to rise above freezing point for the entire month of March. A detailed discussion thread can be found at Winter Highland website (a quick scan of this should be enough to give a flavour of how things stand): http://www.winterhighland.info/forum/read.php?2,154638

Snow down to road level (about 600m asl) on the A93 at Glenshee Ski Centre. http://www.webcam-ski.com/webcams/interfaces/glenshee/interface.php?pk_interface=278&m=images&r=panoramique#depart Some very wintry looking webcams at the ski centres, in particular Cairngorm: http://www.winterhighland.info/testcam/ssc.jpeg http://www.winterhighland.info/testcam/lady.jpeg

One of my own photos of Culter Fell ,near Biggar, yesterday. Not quite on the scale of the massive drifts shown on the news recently, but still managed to walk over the top of one gate and fence on a drift of 4 feet or so!

Some great photos on the Cairngorm ski centre Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CairnGormMtn/photos_stream Drifts about 7 metres deep at the Funicular tunnel entrance, apparently:

A new snowfall prediction map from the Met Office

Interesting that the warnings have been extended- though, as often with the Met Office website, you get about 3 different forecasts for the same area. Graphics forecast for my area is dry, text says possible light snow showers, but there is a yellow warning out! Snowing reasonably heavily in EK with a strong gusty wind, but not lying any more.