Frost HoIIow

I'm certainly not denying that Scotland on the whole is snowier especially on high ground - that is obvious you have higher mountains. I just wanted to point out some meteorological reasons where England does better - with an easterly. And that there are exceptions to Scotland's colder and snowier reputation. Like, for example, I singled out Glasgow and other low land places in Scotland which don't tend to get much in most situations. In fact I think Newcastle in England is a snowier city than Glasgow for example. Yet Newcastle is not high ground at all. Newcastle does quite well for easterly's, but better still places just a few miles more inland. And to some extent Newcastle can get some decent snow from Northerly's too. Would Scotland do just as good with smaller hills/mountains? No way. The seas/gulf stream around the UK moderate the weather a great deal no matter how far North you are. I think without the mountainous terrain Scotland wouldn't do half as good as it does. I think the reality is most towns & cities of Scotland have not seen lying snow in the past few days. For how far North all the UK is we really should do much better for cold and snow than we do given everywhere from Cornwall to Shetland is closer to the North Pole than the Equator.

Scotland tends to get more PM/Northerly incursions but they rarely bring extreme temps nor is the snow long lasting on low ground with the exception of December 1995, there's also parts of Scotland that don't do well for snow at all like Glasgow and some other lowland areas. England tends to do better than Scotland with Siberian Continental air from the east and snow tends to settle at all levels with this wind direction because air from the east has a much lower dew point than the wetter type of snow from PM air. The Pennines can get absolutely hammered in an easterly flow. North-East England got 7 feet of level snow in March 1947 and I believe the drifts were more than triple that. It's just a pity that this wind direction is a rare beast otherwise Pennine England would give most of Scotland a run for the money. But yes overall especially with height you tend to get more snow mostly from PM/Northerly incursions.

I think elevation will be the key tomorrow, and perhaps the further north you are with that elevation as milder air is likely to move up from the south. It goes from this with chilly air over most of the region http://modeles.meteociel.fr/modeles/wrfnmm/nmm_uk1-41-22-1.png?11-17 To this in the afternoon with the south of the region in milder air http://modeles.meteociel.fr/modeles/wrfnmm/nmm_uk1-41-26-1.png?11-17 But still all to play for these things can change at short notice.

Light snow cover in Aviemore. http://winterhighland.info/cams/aviemore/aviemore@2.jpeg

Well I hope you get some, hills look great around Glossop in the snow.

Yes the local forecast was showing heavy rain from 10pm, not had anything yet. North Lancs & Cumbria copping it all again.

We have a lag effect to our seasons in which early Winter is usually the mildest part, with Jan & Feb the colder months with more snow on average. Same with Summer but the opposite - June is usually the coolest part of Summer despite the very long daylight. Plenty of time yet for much colder weather & widespread snows - we're only 9 days almost 10 into Winter. Take early 2013 for example at xmas 2012 I wondered if we was going to see any snow that Winter as up until then there had been nothing and then things started to change big time mid Jan with a SSW. I think we should relax & enjoy xmas as I doubt there will be any big changes before then. I think we were spoilt by Dec 2010 and to a certain extent 2009 as well so this skews thinking about December. Yes it's disappointing to not see proper falls of snow yet but in my lifetime I have seen more snowier January's and February's than December's. It's the weather and it will do what it wants. No point in getting wound up about it.

I'm not a fan of these snow prediction charts a few days out, generally they over exaggerate things.

You can bet your life by April we will have strong northern blocking.

Indeed, I can see, looks rather nice http://www.winterhighland.info/cams/aviemore/