tiff

Just back from Arbroath to pull a van out of a flood, the AA must be struggling up that way. It was absolutely hosing it down with loads of surface water, but South over the Tay it's drying up and quite calm. Still not cold though.

Got a call out earlier this evening up to Braemar- keys locked in car. It was -6 on the dash and very icy. Had to use my flask of coffee to unfreeze the windows so I could get in. Started snowing lightly just back over Glenshee, then turned to rain at Blairgowrie.

They've been using all the gritters to weight check the Forth Bridge I believe....

This just appeared out my window after a heavy shower.

Best biking day of the year for me so far. Unbroken sunshine, warm but not stifling and very little wind. None at all in places. From Fife, down by St Mary's Loch, then over to Dumfries and back up. Why doesn't this happen more often......

Yup, Been going on for over an hour here, mostly over the Forth. Thunder isn't that loud though, even with the close ones.

Getting louder- looks to be just off the Fife Coast out from Buckhaven, Kirkcaldy's had a strike too by the look of it.

Couple of flashes and rumbles in East Wemyss...

Thunder and lightning here now...

Power cuts here in East Wemyss, lights gone out 4 or 5 times now. Buckhaven still lit up though. Wish I could see the big windmill down at Methil!

Really heavy snow here and its lying Lost the Sky signal though, so hope it continues so I can watch it out the window.

These seem to be the best pages I've found for forecasts. http://www.aurora-service.eu/aurora-forecast/ http://helios.swpc.noaa.gov/ovation/North_New.html

Yr.No Says snow for me Monday and Tuseday. Bring it on! YAY

Especially if you drive an Alfa Romeo, Rover/MG or Vectra Diesel- these are the most common cars I pull out of floods. Not that we get much flooding in Fife.. I'm off today and tomorrow so not my problem!

Snowing here in 'Muchty- blowing around on a bitter and gusty wind, nothing lying yet though.

I got my first call at 6am to someone who had slipped off a roundabout near Cupar, and then passed the fatal accident on the A92. There were bumps, scrapes and "offs" everywhere. The roads were unbelieveable- and stayed like this until late morning. I covered the whole of Fife all day, from Culross to St Andrews and didn't see one gritter the entire day. The standards of driving were terrible. I nearly got wiped out on the side of the M90 in a blizzard by a car with no lights on at all. You could see 5 feet in front of you and this numpty just appeared out of the gloom, just missing my van, which has all sort of flashing lights and reflective strips. Thanks Mate. Jumping out of the way is much easier if I can see you coming.

Stupidly slippy out there tonight, just dragged a car out of a field between Auchtermuchty and Dunshalt- difficult even to stand up on the road. None of the roads locally seem to have been gritted. -3 and snowing now. Be careful if you are driving tonight- difficult even in a tow truck with winters...

Really strange here- cleared 3 inches of snow off my van and drove to Falkland, 4 miles away where there was no snow. Very little on the Lomonds either..?

Found this strange... The Germans measure their snow in Tonnes!! The snow would, German weather service the DWD said, continue over the next few days before temperatures plummet to below minus 10 degrees Celsius. By Wednesday, meteorologists said the country would be covered in around six billion tonnes of snow. Click here for The Local's weather forecast Monday morning was tough for commuters everywhere after three and a half billion tonnes of snow fell on Sunday alone. In central Germany between Thuringia and Hesse thousands of drivers found themselves in a 70-kilometre-long traffic jam on Monday morning amid freezing temperatures and falling snow.

The 40 is the height of the sidewall as a percentage of the width of the tyre- tyres are marked 205/40/17 (for example). the 205 is the width of the tyre in millimetres, the 40 is the height of the sidewall is 40% of 205 millimetres and the 17 is the diameter of the wheel in inches... no idea why they mix metric and imperial, but all tyres are marked the same way, with few exceptions. The letter is the speed rating of the tyre, usually H, V or W on modern cars. All PROPER winter tyres must have the snowflake symbol on the sidewall, but M+S tyres have no criteria for how good or suitable they are for winter.

NO winter tyres were used in the production of this photograph.

Up over the Lomonds at 9 this morning, I don't think this road will be passable for much longer

Just driven up over the Lomonds- heavy snow, maybe 3 inches and drifting in the strong winds. Snowing in Muchty, but not lying.

Nothing at all here- ground very wet.

Yay, I've got the day off tomorrow. If you get stuck, it's not my problem. 'mon the snaw