Ravelin

Oh well, the cloud cover has now rolled in so bye bye sunshine. Hopefully it'll not be too long before we see it again.

Another cold, slightly frosty start to the day here with wall-to-wall blues skies. I'm getting kind of used to seeing the sun, it'll be a pity if it gets cloudier as forecast for later today onwards.

Well I'll echo the thoughts expressed already, a lovely calm, crisp frosty start to the day here with wall to wall blue skies. That follows on from a very good weekend of similarly pleasant weather. I must admit when out walking the dog on Sunday afternoon of thinking "Hmmmm....this is rather nice....do I really want another cold spell?". Of course what I do or do not want is irrelevant as the weather will do what the weather wants. I just hope we get cold and snowy, or cold and blue skies and not cold and wet or cold and grey.

Well in addition to the "Kids Football Weather Model" and my recently introduced "Mother-in-law Weather Model" I can now add the "Running Weather Model". I've just signed up to run the Balmoral 10K again this year at the end of April. There were many reasons for doing so, including wanting to beat last years time, being a lazy sod recently and needing the motivation, and wanting to shed some of the xmas weight. Of course now that I've forked out cash any subtle signs of spring will evaporate and we'll be plunged into another long cold spell that hinders any semblance of organised training.

Same here, lying in bed first thing this morning I could hear the crunching as the cars leaving the street negotiated the now icy road. The wet, slushy snow that was melting so well last night was frozen solid this morning, which I wasn't expecting. So far today a chilly start, little or no wind, bright but not sunny due to thin cloud cover with the odd patch of blue sky showing through. .

Well after appearing to turn more to rain for a while in Dyce it now seems to be back to snow again. Not going outside to do a more accurate check as it looks rather horrible. Still struggling to lie, and what has managed looks pretty wet. Even more inland the wife reported that the snow she cleared from the driveway was wet stuff. Traffic Cam for the A85 in Glen Ogle looks rather pretty and I think that road is currently closed, as is the A82 to the north end of Loch Lomond. Doesn't leave many options for anyone coming to or from Ft.William and Glasgow/Stirling.

It definitely exists. For a year, around 2001/2002, I lived in Dunfermline and worked in the centre of Edinburgh. I could have several inches of snow at my house but there wasn't even a flake lying outside my work. At least one day I remember not making it in to work as the trains weren't running due to heavy snow. I'd to email a picture to work as my colleagues couldn't believe it was that bad.

Currently closed in both directions. I first noticed that it was closed at 2:30pm when I checked the BBC Travel website for the NE, but it could have closed before then. Edit: According to Traffic Scotland it's been closed since 12:50.

No idea about the intensity but unfortunately for us it's not unusual with stuff coming from the West to get soaked up by the mountains, leaving us with just light stuff or nothing. Works for our favour when it's rain though so can't complain too much. Given that it's snowed constantly since I got to work nearly 2 hrs ago there's surprisingly little settling. Temp sitting at 0.4/-1.1 too so I'd maybe expect to see a little more accumulation and less melting.

Steady light snow being blown around in a decent wind. Started around 8am in Kemnay and is lying both there and in Dyce where I am now, but just a dusting so far.

I couldn't possibly comment on that. In the other hand I will admit that I will be having trouble not putting weight on next week as she's a good cook.

Either that or a period of "followed by" i.e slush and a quick thaw if the predicted temps for Thu & Fri are accurate. Much as I'd love that ECM to come to fruition, I'm not getting my hopes up in the slightest. However, there is one slim hope on the horizon from the alternative weather models stable. I'm up for Jury duty Wed next week. As a result the wife's parents are coming up from Englandshire to help out and take over school run duty. Every time, and I mean every time, including during the summer, they have been to stay with us since we moved to Aberdeenshire it's been cold during their stay. My mother-in-law seems to think Aberdeenshire is the coldest place on earth and is less than keen on the area as a consequence. As for this morning, well it wouldn't surprise the mother-in-law as it is calm, gray and cloudy, and cold (around 1-2 deg C) with just a very, very light dusting of overnight snow in Kemnay.

I was talking to one of the women at the Lecht ticket office yesterday. I'd commented about the awful weather and how I'd been at Glenshee the week before and it was very windy there that day too. Her reply was "It's been a very windy season this year". There have been very few notable cold, calm, frosty days this winter and certainly no multi-day period like that I can think of.

Well my hopes of waking to a wintry scene this morning were forlorn. It was snowing when I went to bed last night but all there was lying this morning in the village were some thin patches on the grass. I didn't even have to clear the car. Been too busy over the weekend to look into the madhouse i.e Model Thread. If that doesn't show a nailed-on block either to the NE or NW then frankly I'd rather we just got on with Spring. I'd rather have some mild, dry weather than all this cold sleety rain. Not quite TOORP as for here at least it's been an OK winter, with a couple of periods of lying snow. It's not lived up to it's potential however and the most surprising feature has been the lack of any real cold.

Snooz, i often wonder about the sensibility of trying to get kids to play football during the winter and thaf incudent just reenforces that. Our sons game yesterday was played in benign conditions by comparison but on a muddy, slippy pitch. Cold too but a 4-1 win madd it worthwhile, if a flattering scoreline.

On phone so short post. Was at Lecht earlier, absolutely wild! Had to come back Dufftown, Huntly way as Strathdon road closed in afternoon, drifting badly no doubt. Snowy mix all the way back but only really sticking on higher ground. Not much at home but maybe i'll wake up to snowy scene tomorrow.

Probably because most of those 'faffing' are in central and western England that don't benefit from an easterly convective setup? I agree with you though, usually an E or NE flow off the North Sea is more interesting. It certainly is more fun watching the radar feed and trying to guess which one of the showers is going to hit you, and when. That's not to say I wouldn't happily take a bit of frontal snowfall followed by bright, cold days with convective showers.

Quick, you order the aeroplane charter and we'll all start packing our sledges. Everyone meet at Glasgow airport at 3pm.

Well personally I blame the Tories....no, in fact I blame all politicians for the lack of a extreme, snowy winter. They promise us all snow and blizzards in their manifestos when they want our votes, but then after they are settled into their cosy parliamentary seats their previous promises get watered down to sleety outbreaks and cold rain. As for the Independence vote, promise me a snowy winter from Scotland every year and it'll be a YES from me. Now back on topic, chilly, sunny bright blue skies here. Better than grey, dull and wet but kind of boring. Snooz, I think I'll be forced to downgrade my 80% chance of the footie games going ahead this weekend. On the current forecast even our game in Aberdeen on Sat could be in doubt due to frost (downgrade to 65% chance of going ahead). If your game on Sunday is at Bogbeth then choose between any one of frost, snow, or rain to be the spoiler (downgrade to 50% chance of going ahead).

The 'skimming' extends out as far as Kemnay at least, although I believe from a colleague there's nothing much to the South of the city. It was snowing very lightly in Kemnay when I left at 8am. The roads in Kemnay/Kintore are fairly icy in places but not too bad as the traffic volumes are low. Dyce however was a completely different story! Roads quite icy in places so everything slowed almost to a halt and I witnessed at least one van play the 'lets see how fast I can spin my wheels' game.

Thanks for the offer but I'll gracefully decline it. I had considered getting tickets when they went on sale but not for long. The hassle of getting home, changed, and back into Aberdeen in time to make it to the match was just too off-putting. I don't normally get home until after 6pm due to the late, post school-run start. Now, if it'd been a competitive match, and the team had been playing well, I may have found a way. Really is a sad reflection on the teams recent performances when I can't be bothered to go to a Scotland match so close to home. That's pretty bad Snooz, at least our lads managed to get a game on 10th Nov plus a friendly and competitive game in Jan. Still a potentially huge backlog though, especially as we're still in 2 out of the 3 cup competitions. Mind you, last year's winter wasn't much to shout about and we still ended up playing 2 games a week, maybe even 3 one week! Our game this week is scheduled to be played in Aberdeen (Aultons I think) so given the current forecast, and that we don't have to overcome the 'Bogbeth frost shadow', I'm going for an 80% chance of this weeks game going ahead. If it does I'll be wrapping up warm.

Yep, I see yesterdays open warfare in the MT over which model is best is still raging, escalating even! Maybe if the Mods imposed some sort of MT post limit, say 10 posts per person per day in the MT then people might think twice and cut out all the useless posts. Even trying to read between sniping, I can't see much of use in determining what we can expect between now, and into the weekend. Everyone seems to still be chasing a potential 'Easterly' at T120-144 (and is always at T120-144), which may bring snow, or rain, or may just never appear. Apart from that, the other main debate seems to be whether it'll still be cold in 10 days time. I'm beginning to wonder if reading the model thread isn't just a pointless waist of time. On to the now and here....largely sunny and windy, and as I predicted previously the earlier covering of snow has now melted. The last shower that hit was rather impressive and if we could sustain that for a while I'd be getting excited. It was over all too soon though and didn't really lie. The showers are just too infrequent and short-lived to expect anything other than a bitterly cold, sunny day.

Very heavy 15min shower of graupel & snow just as I was taking the youngest to school this morning. It left the place looking white but, as is the norm with showers, cover varied from white to wet at various points between Kemnay & Dyce. Car park at work currently has a dusting and it's windy with clouds rolling over. I suspect it'll be a day of short wintry showers, with most of the snow that falls melting during the sunnier intervals.

Currently blowy and left trouser leging with rain outside, most unpleasant for the dogs final trip to the garden tonight. BBC website suggests it should turn more wintry overnight...we'll see. Going to take a lot for snow to settle now ground is sodden.

I know it's only been a few days since we last had falling and lying snow so can't complain too much but yeah, come on with the northerly. I hoped I'm proved wrong though but I don't have great expectations for the next few days for some reason. Maybe cos I'd like to see the Met Office temp forecasts a bit lower. I don't know about TOORPing, it's approaching all out warfare in the MT today between the 'GFS supporters' and the 'ECM supporters' (the UKMO is taking the middle ground so is currently claiming neutrality).