BleakMidwinter

To be honest, we're a household of Radio4-junkies and until I checked the weather sites this afternoon I had no idea - just been through and nobody else has heard anything about this til I told 'em. Either it wasn't forecast particularly til very very recently or else it was forecast to be windy but the intensity has massively increased vv recently, or else my household lives in La La Land where it's always sunny and jolly with the fluffy white clouds in the blue sky like little baa-lambs. Me, I reckon the storm's forecast strength has increased in this afternoon's models, hence why it's suddenly "appeared". BleakMidwinter

I'm inclined to think, if you have the option of working from home tomorrow instead of driving, it may be best for the emergency services and utilities engineers to leave the roads as clear as possible. And if I had a train journey like that, I think I'd be staying home instead! Mind you, I think I may spend tomorrow under the duvet anyway - it sounds bloody awful. Possibly under the duvet in the coal-cellar... :-)

Strewth, tomorrow looks.... 'interesting'... Edinburgh's been another bright clear sunny day, crisp and cold but barely a breath of wind. Think that may change by tomorrow teatime! In the past six ,months we've had 70+mph gusts recorded on Blackford Hill, which is on a level with our attic windows, so we reckon what they get, we get pretty much the same. It always used to be about twice a year I had to move downstairs as my attic bedroom shook as the wind hit the exposed south/west sides of the house like a sledgehammer and rattled furniture and shook paintings off (we even had a surveyor in at one point to check the house, but it's fine, just a hundred years' worth of mobility, eek!). Seems to happen a bit more than twice a year now, and also it only used to be autumn or spring storms that did it, whereas once was May iirc, and once September this year. So I'll move ornaments and pictures onto the floor tonight... :-) BleakMidwinter

I'm totally amazed to find Edinburgh is so large by UK standards! I honestly thought Manchester was much bigger - my apologies for that! but we really don't get much snow - the last winter was amazing, thanks to unusual Easterly snow-bearing weather, but the year before was far less than most of the UK; at times we were sitting in a bone-dry sunny Edinburgh watching news reports showing that "the entire country" had snow! And we not only get snowless winters - we get years on end without any snow at all. The Botanics is the Met station and their records say "December 2010 brought the thickest layer of snow with 22cm at RBGE (though it was a lot higher in other parts of Edinburgh). The previous record had been 8cm on several occasions. Interestingly, the longest snow free period was from March 2006 to February 2009, almost three years." http://www.rbge.org.uk/science/plants-and-climate-change/edinburgh-weather-station So we're both right and both wrong :-)

Sorry, I tried to post to say Embra still has sod-all snow, but unfortunately my tears of snowless sorrow flooded the keyboard.... It's gonna be just like usual, like all the other winters - we get four flakes and the rest of the country gets fourteen foot of snow. Someone do something to MAKE it go Easterly - it's our only hope!

Sigh. Slight scattering, possibly not even enough to count as 'snow', overnight, bright sunshine in central/south Edinburgh. 1 degree C. Not a cloud in the bright blue sky. Soddit.

You couldn't make it up... Isolated Frost, I'll admit to its being a metaphor... :-) 1 C according to our thermometer which is propped up against the pots of primroses, flowering for their second time this year and now looking deeply confused about their flowering in a frozen December. Ever seen a confused primrose? Quite something...

Not sure where you get your data from, but from 30+ years living in Edinburgh, it doesn't have "reliable snow". That long period of endless snow at the start of 2010? We had dry clear pavements and sunshine. The lack of snow in early 2011? That would be our six weeks of snow that the Army had to clear... Edinburgh gets a smattering of snow when the rest of the country gets snow dumps - if it comes from West, South, or North, then we don't get it, as it is cut off by the sea estuary, or the hills. Only if it comes due East do we get snow in any meaningful amount. I am told by friends from Aberdeen that the city itself rarely has more than an inch or so of snow - AberdeenSHIRE gets heavy snow, yes, but the city itself seems not to. p.s. also, Edinburgh is not usually classed as "big city" as it only has fewer than half a million people (and about forty million students...). Just don't want anyone relocating here eagerly expecting heavy snow in the great metropolis!

Bah. A slight dusting of white on the tarmac is visible. My mum puts a thicker layer of icing sugar on her mince pies!

Please let some of the snow get to Edinburgh! I live in precisely the wrong place for Scottish snow :-( A covering this morning 8-8.40, but just ruddy sunshine since then, bah humbug!

Snow in south Edinburgh! Nothing at 7am, but from 8-8.40 it snowed steadily and settled - sadly, it's now dripping loudly off all trees, sob, sob. 0.75cm snow, 0.5 degrees C, 0844h. c.600 foot above sl. BleakMidwinter

For the Lothians and Borders area, Edinburgh is hopeless unless we get exceptional Easterlies laden with snow*. The Borders are all pretty snow-y, most winters. The A7 bus to Gala often used to carry shovels and the passengers in the 1980s would get out and dig on occasion... East Lothian gets very little, but then it gets very little precipitation at all. MidLothian is fairly reliably snowy, specifically around the higher ground alongside the North-South line of the Pentlands. *this explains why the Council had to get the Army out to clear ice, because Edinburgh since the winter of 79/80 has not had enough snow for the residents to understand how to clear a pavement...

Hullo Great excitement for me this morning - partly because I've taken the plunge and registered to post here, but mainly because Edinburgh Has Snow! 7am - Lightest-possible dusting of white on distant Pentland Hills to south and rain here; 8am, half an inch of fine powder snow here, and still drizzling pure snow. BleakMidwinter