A Winter's Tale

I’m glad Braemar has officially recorded -23.0c - an incredible temperature. It’s funny how the coldest temperatures don’t always occur during the coldest winters - the lowest temperature out of 1947, 1963 and 2010 was -22.3C in Jan 2010. After a decade of temperatures struggling to drop below -15C it’s great that the 2020s hasn’t failed to achieve -20C.

Since 1875 only 1879, 1881, 1895, 1910, 1919, 1940, 1955, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985 and 1995 have recorded lower temperatures. I’m not sure how cold it got in February 1979/1985 but we could be looking at the coldest February temperature since 1955 and potentially the second coldest since 1895. Absolutely remarkable!

Does anyone know the coldest temperatures recorded in February 1985 and 1979? We could be looking at the coldest temperature in February since 1955!

A stunning winter’s morning.

Absolutely remarkable! After a decade of struggling to record -15C it’s amazing we’ve beaten 2010. -20C has been so rare over the past 30 years I was beginning to doubt if we’d get close to 2010 or 2001 in the 2020s. -11C is also the coldest recorded at Glasgow airport in February since 1991.

-20.9C at Kinbrace. The coldest temperature since December 2010. Glasgow airport also down to -11C. The best week since 2010 in terms of snow and low temperatures.

-9C at Glasgow airport before 9pm. A very good chance of seeing sub -10C.

-13.2C at 6pm in Altnaharra. A very good chance of -20C tonight and an outside chance of the coldest temperature since 1995. Is Kinbrace still an official met office station?

Quite literally dropping like a stone. I see Altnaharra is already down to -10C but I suspect Braemar is most likely to record the lowest temperatures.

A beautiful winter’s day with sunshine and blue sky and 3-4 inches of snow on the ground. Glasgow airport had another maximum of 0C and it looks like a very cold night ahead. It would be great if somewhere in Scotland could drop to below -20C which has been very rare in the past 30 years. Looking ahead to the weekend snow potential the GFS 12z is a downgrade for Saturday but has another frontal snowfall next Monday.

The roads are fine now. Traffic was slower last night after a few showers but other than that it’s been okay.

Just had a look at the GFS 18z and it shows a pretty impressive battleground snowfall for the weekend. It will probably change but it’d be great to have some proper frontal snowfall for once.

A heavy shower has just cleared. The depth is currently 10.5-11cm. I don’t expect much more but I’m hoping to reach 5 or 6 inches but 10cm+ is still a pretty good outcome.

I notice Altnaharra is already down to -11C. A decent chance for a low of -18 to -20C tonight.

A beautiful wintry twilight with pale, cold looking skies, the temperature just below freezing, some light snow flurries and most surfaces covered with 3-4 inches of fine snow. Proper winter weather reminiscent of 2010 and much better than 1-2cm of slush. Hopefully we’ll see some very low temperatures in the next couple of nights. -10C in the central bell and -20C in the highlands would probably make this the best spell of cold and snow since 2010 and one of the best in recent decades. Looking at the radar it seems the showers are tracking more east to west. I’m probably hoping for more showers around South Queensferry to make their way west.

A very good event overall. Not half as amazing as the Beast from the East but still one of the top 5 or 6 largest snowfalls I’ve experienced in the past 15 years. Compared to 2018 the showers have been more infrequent and lighter overall with a mixture of fluffy snowflakes and smaller powdery snow. There’s some drifting but not on the scale as 2018. It seems we have clipped the edges of showers so I’m hoping to get a few direct hits of heavier showers. 2018 had a maximum of -3C which was the coldest in the records since 1973 for February at Glasgow Airport. Today the temperature didn’t get above 0C which is the coldest maximum temperature of the winter so far and one of coldest on the past 35+ years at the airport. The impressive streamer around Dundee is reminiscent of 2018 and worthy of a red warning. I wonder if we could see something fairly similar further south.

Here are some photos.

9.5-10cm here this morning which is the second largest snowfall in over a decade.

Biggest snowfall since the Beast from the East. Currently 6cm with hopefully more to come.

The Cumbernauld to Falkirk area seems to be in the gap between the showers.

Snow depth around 3.5-4cm

I’ve measured 2cm so far. The surface I tend to use to measure snow is the top of a small wall. I wonder what surfaces everyone else uses.

A very fine line between 10cm and 35cm for here.

The cold spells of mid Dec 2009-mid Jan 2010 and late Nov-early Dec 2010 remain the benchmark for cold spells as far as I’m concerned. Snow depths more 10cm, lying snow and below average temps for over two weeks, ice days, -10C minima in the cities with -20c in the highlands. Since then there have been 10 snowfalls of 2 inches plus, 4 with depths 3 inches +. There have been only 4 occasions with 2cm+ on the ground for 5 days (Jan 2015 (2), Jan 2018, Feb/Mar 2018). Jan and Mar 2013 and Jan 2021 have been the only prolonged cold spells of note. January 2021 has been the only occasion temps have dropped below -10C at Glasgow whilst -15C has been pretty rare in Scotland over the last decade. This winter has certainly been closest to 2010 (09/10 in particular) in terms of how cold it has been in general. Hopefully this cold spell will rank alongside those in 2010 which would put 2020/21 as a winter up there with category as 09/10 and 10/11.

Another pretty heavy snow shower has just rolled through