BleakMidwinter

Yep, that's about right! This is such an unusual event (and getting more unusual, it now seems - a shortwave might yet develop, apparently, which would give us another 5-10 days of cold and potential snow...!!!)...

Yet again, can I sneak in a quick THANKYOU to you and everyone else in here who has been so good at explaining what I'\m looking at when you post a chart - it means I've been really able to enjoy the excitement - and still am doing! I'll remember this cold period for a long time, not just because of the weather but because it is the first time I've had ANY slight understanding of how all these charts and models and so on actually work!

What, this Dec 8, you mean? This was first thing in the morning on that glorious Friday...

It's actually very rare for Edinburgh to get more than 1-3 inches of snow - I lived there for 35 years and we had two snowy winters in 1979-80 and 2010-11. This current Red Warning is unprecedented. Most years, Edinburgh gets a couple of inches of wet snow that lies for a day or two turning to grey slush, or even gets none. That 2010 year you all go on about? The entire UK coated in snow except Edinburgh - because Edinburgh lies low, is next the sea, surrounded to Wst and South by snow-gobbling hills - so it only gets major snow from an Easterly like this, and they are rare... As for the Highlands, well, yeah, they do get snow, but you'd expect them to as they are both higher altitude and further north. Like Canada and Russia get more snow than the Midlands, too

Hurrah, Niece and her boyfriend have safely reached home. Although Boyf has now had to go back out in the Red Warning as it turns out Older Niece decided to go out driving in it. I shall be having words with her. She has the right, as does everyone, to risk her own life but this is needlessly risking other people's lives... grrrr! Stay safe, everyone...!

She is somewhere en route on the coast road in this, west of North Berwick... little hatchback car... at least she's with her boyfriend and they DO have an emergency-box in the car, and they've got experience driving in eg Iceland in winter, as well as up by Aviemore in snow, plus they both go running so are reasonably fit and outdoorsy, but all the same, I shall be happier when I know they're home safe...

Ah well, at least it's keeping those sheep of yours safe!

We've had falling snow for the last 20 minutes or so in TF3... Overdale/Lawley area

Sensible of you to get off the road - services may not be the loveliest places but they're better than freezing inside your car as it runs out of fuel!

Snowing in Telford, through the sunshine...

We think it's the second one ever. There was one in late 2010 but it was lifted before its time arrived, so maybe doesn't count. My younger niece is bang in its path at work in North Berwick trying to convince her criminally-irresponsibly-stupid boss to let her away early as she has a dozen miles to drive home on the exposed coast-road. I shall be very relieved to hear she is home, but so far she isn't. This is exceptional for Edinburgh.

I'd feel much more excited about this red warning if I didn't have a niece working in North Berwick currently trying to convince her boss to let her drive home early to a village along the coast road.... Other niece and this niece's boyfriend got let out from their works early, but little niece's boss seems to be totally thick. Grr.

Def a red warning for snow in 2010, but it was removed some hours before its time-stamp arrived.

Yep, my thinking too - I'm enjoying the excitement of the charts and forecasts, learning more about how models work, and seeing how the different systems struggle to comprehend how this particular set-up works. And one of the things I've really struggled with since moving south from Scotland is the dismal grey miserable dull late-winter/spring weather so to have these clear crisp properly-cold days is WONDERFUL! Honestly, people go on about Scotland never getting any sun, but Jan and Feb are more often than not bright blue skies and beautiful sunshine like the last few days, with this invigorating exhilarating cold to walk in... between the spring gloom in Englandshire and the dreadful dark evenings in summer, I have found it a very different place to live in. So I'm enjoying this cold weather, with or without snow! Like on of Terry Pratchett's trolls, I wake up and feel more alert when it's properly cold It's a little challenging working round no central heating but we've been fine so far, it's a good little flat with decent double-glazing Stay safe, people, and enjoy the glorious cold!

You'll be wanting your warm vest, I think...

There was one red warning that winter for Edinburgh and I got hugely excited and then it vanished a few hours before its time-stamp... :'( Mind you, I did have enough snaw that winter, so I survived But that's the only red warning I've ever seen.

I've got a bit of a problem. I just went down and not only swept and salt-gritted the steps out to the carpark for when my chap gets home (and put tons of raisins and suet out for the birds) but also swept and salt-gritted the front steps that we never use. As a result I'm now glowing radiantly with smug virtue, and I'm a bit worried this will melt the snow-cover we still have...

Remember this is the convective snow from the easterly, and apparently when it's this very dry powdery stuff it tends to produce much more accumulation than ordinary frontal snow - so instead of 1mm precipitation producing 1cm of snow, it can be more like 1mm = 3cm. That would man your 2-4cm might be 8-12cm... Watch and wait, I reckon!

Ours has stayed for the last 10-15 minutes at any rate after the snow stopped - fingers crossed it stays again... once a base layer gets established, it will help everything else that falls to not-melt, presumably... so if this thin layer stays and freezes overnight then... I dunno, fingers crossed anyway and it looks lovely - my extended family was increased by one small boy arriving in the small hours so I'm finishing knitting for the new baby, and the view from where I sit has a huge big conifer tree which looks just like a Christmas card with snow on each layer of its waving conifer-fur!

Proper heavy snow here, visibility dropped right down, light levels dropped right down, settling on all surfaces inc wet tarmac car-park - exception being the line where all the school-run cars come in and out, rpesumably with salty grit on their tyres from the top road they turn in off! But even that's starting to cover over. A local Wunderground reckons -0.1C, feels like -0.7C, DP -2C.

What I actually popped in to say, but got side-tracked by seeing LS back home, was - have a fantastic few days, Eastern Kilties, and enjoy your walloping of snow! Oops, I mean snaw. Gawd, I've gone native already and it's only been three and a half years...

You were much-missed even by emigrants like me (still settling-in down in Telford, Shropshire, but a sudden foot of snow in early Dec helped with that!). Very lovely to see you back again. You should see the huge grin I've got from seeing your name back up in here where it belongs!

Is it graupel? Sounds like it and that would fit with very cold uppers, wouldn't it?

Thanks, yes, parts of, not all of... the weather doesn't pay much attention to local govt boundaries so, you'll be nipping out the front door, not the back

The MetO website says three Western counties of the Midlands in this Amber - note the Impact Matrix - highest level of disruption BUT medium-low level of likelihood