Ravelin

If my work ever find out how addictive weather watching is then the government may be losing the tax on my then non-existent wages. Well if winter is supposed to be over according to some on the MT thread then personally i'm not seeing it. Yes it's been warmer the last few days than it was but the hills I can see around Kemnay still have patches of snow on them. The grass in my garden is still pretty frozen under the immediate top layer, there's still plenty of patches of ice and thin snow remaining around the village, the lower paths at Bennachie are still well iced up in places when we went for a walk there with the dog today etc. We even had a frost overnight, which lingered throughout the day in shaded spots. All quite wintery signs for me, even if we aren't burried in 6ft snow drifts. It is only mid Dec too, so much more winter ahead, and by the sounds of it the models are at least indicating some potential in a week or so. Bring it on!!! Ravelin

To add to the "alternative weather models" theme, I'll add the "Kids Football Weather Model". My son's team have had all but one weekend game called off due to ice/snow/water on the pitches for several weeks now. This weekend is thier last scheduled game before the Xmas break, with the next scheduled game on the weekend of the 12th Jan. My prediction.....the weather will get mild and dry enough after this weekend for the pitches to become playable, but will then deteriorate in time for them to be unplayable again by 12th Jan. Ravelin

And here's the weather forecast from Dyce..............Yuk! That's about all I can say for it. Very wet, very windy, very horrible. Let hope at least that the ski resorts get a good dump of snow to see them through past Xmas, when they can get another lot to top off the pistes and tempt me to dig my skis out of the attic. Ravelin

Having just done the school run I can say that it was a bloody cold wait outside the school. Just glad there was no wind. Now that we've resigned ourselves to a milder period I'm going to embrace it. I could do with a milder spell to warm up, get out for some runs, get rid of the remnants of solid ice on the roads and paths etc. I do not, I repeat do no, want to see any more snow just yet please. Ravelin (Do you think the reverse psychology will work? Does Mother Nature respond to it?)

Well it's now 12:30 in Dyce and still well below freezing. The cars in the carpark still have frost on thier roofs, even the ones in full sun. Ravelin

The car thermomenter flipped between -6C and -7C pretty much all the way from Kemnay until Blackburn at around 8am this morning. Only got up to the dizzy heights of -5C by the time I arrived in Dyce. That's the coldest I've seen it so far this winter. Lovely clear bright morning.

Bennachie Watch - A gorgeous pale pink this morning. Other than that nothing remarkable in our neck of the woods. Lighter frost than yesterday and currently broken cloud, blue sky and virtually no wind. Actually, sitting in work looking out is torture as it'd probably be a great day to climb a hill. Ravelin

A chilly start to the day in Kemnay this morning. A nice covering of frost on the car, but the nice easy stuff to scrape thankfully, not the nasty frozen on ice. There's still snow on the ground where it's been deepest and/or shaded and and thick ice too. In fact the ice on the local park was lethal this morning, both on the paths and in the grass, and seems to have gained a huge degree of slippiness since yesterday. Bennachie looked magnificent in the sun this morning. Bright white and it may just be my imagination but it looks like it may have gained a fresh coat of snow yesterday at some point. It'll be a pity if the predicted mild, rainy weekend washes it all away. Ravelin

Here 3 of the photos I took yesterday up on Bennachie. Not fantastic quality as they were taken on my phone but they are suitablely snowy. Doubt there will be quite as much snow up there today what with a mild and wet overnight period since. https://forum.netweather.tv/gallery/image/16809-towards-oxen-craig-again/ https://forum.netweather.tv/gallery/image/16808-mither-tap/ https://forum.netweather.tv/gallery/image/16807-towards-oxen-craig/ The snow in my garden has just about gone today. So much so that now I'd probably prefer it all to go ready for a nice fresh blanket. Ravelin

Well I'll stay well away from the MT as 1) I wouldn't understand it 2) I value my sanity. :-) Unusual day here, what with a surprise heavy snow shower this morning. Now its mild, windy and wet but the snow in our north facing back garden is just about hanging on. Another day of the same and I think the piles by the driveway may be the sole survivors. I got my play in the snow this afternoon when the dog and I climbed Mither Tap on Bennachie. Plenty of snow up there, more than its speckled look would suggest. Its heavy and wet stuff admitedly but I disappeared up to my knees in it several times. A route I can easily do in just over 1hr normally took me about 1.5hrs today and was hard work! Beautiful though, especially as the sun started to set and everything turned orange and yellow. I'll try to post some pictures from my phone when I get the chance and if I can figure out how. Just don't let the MT moaners see them or they may explode with jealousy. :-)

Friday morning update from Aberdeenshire. It didn't look like there was any new snow added to the existing cover in Kemnay yesterday or overnight. Temp around -3C and misty when I got home around 6pm, but back up to about 2C at 8am this morning. Reasonably bright with showers so far this morning, but of rain rather than snow (in Dyce at least). Lying snow still surviving, it was fairly solid in Kemnay first thing but here in Dyce it looks like it's getting softer, even a bit slushy in the car park. Looking forward to a drop in temp again next week and maybe even some more snow. Ravelin

Not even as much of a hint of rain in Dyce so far. By the looks of the rainfall radar anything coming our way so far has been blocked/soaked up by the Cairngorms. That is quite often the case with systems coming in from the west, and usually welcome when it's rain. We need a more northerly, or easterly flow! Ravelin

Good morning! Well so far in Kemnay/Dyce it's been a non-event and unscientifically it just doesn't feel like it's going to snow. Feels just a little too mild and damp and the existing snow seems to have softned up since last night. Maybe the best I can hope for is for it not to rain too much and to at least retain the current snowpack. Ravelin

Snooz, that doesn't sound good with the car. From the photos I think I know roughly where you live though, and if so that hill is rather steep so not a surprise. Just had another brief snow flurry in Dyce. Though it was over for the day so had stopped watching the radar (to actually do some work) so came as a surprise. Ravelin

Well the Amber weather warning suggests snow initially (away from coasts) turning to rain. The forecast for Inverurie suggests light, briefly heavier, snow from 6am to 3pm roughly, with a high temp of 1C. I can't see that adding up to 6in, but that was probably the Mets predicition for the top of the Cairngorms, not lower areas. With temps hovering around freezing it could go either way between rain and snow and only tomorrow will tell. Personally, since I have to get home from work for the school run tomorrow afternoon, I either hope it snows heavily early to close the schools, or for once that it is a non-event. ravelin

As another snow loving big kid in thier 40s I've been keeping an eye on the Netweather forums for a few weeks now to see if we manage to get a better winter than last years non event. I'm still baffled by most of the terms on the Strat thread etc but the reality so far has been promising. For the start of Dec were not doing too badly in Aberdeenshire for snow. Last weekends falls have survived despite a fair bit of rain and the last couple of days have topped that up nicely. Even had to start clearing the driveway and paths. This mornings drive into work at Dyce was interesting. Despite the roads not appearing to be too bad the A96, at 9am, was gridlocked at Kintore so I took the back route on the B977 (new 4x4 and happy to play). Got into work fine but took me around twice my usual 20mins. Aberdeen was a traffic mess too by the reports of collegues at work. Weather so far this morning in Dyce has been heavy snow showers and sunny spells. Looking forward to it sticking around at least through the weekend so I can get "out to play" with the kids. Or could we keep the cover all month if some reports are to be believed? Ravelin