Spindrift2017

Earlier today my mum sent me this photo of a rather strange looking lone cloud(?) that was apparently visible for 20-30 minutes between about 11pm-midnight yesterday. Anyone ever seen anything like this, or is it one for the X Files?

Great visibility yesterday - had a walk round the group of hills on the north side of Glen Artney, west of Comrie. Stuc a’ Chroin and Ben Vorlich looking quite alpine, particularly the peak of Ben Vorlich with its snow cornices.

Only a few scraps of snow left here now, although it’s a cold, raw, damp-feeling night. A few more pics from this morning to remember the one-day wonder by:

A couple of photos from a morning walk. Not exactly deep and crisp and even but enough to give a proper wintry feel! I suppose I’d better do some work now

Most of it seems to have fallen from about 6am onwards. I woke up about 4 and when I looked out there was only a patchy smattering. Woke up again after 6 and it was fairly swirling around with snow in short bursts.

Noticed earlier that the Clyde was way over its banks onto the floodplain at the Raith Interchange, swamping all the ponds and haughs into one massive pool. Must’ve been some amount of rain, sleet, plus snow that melted from the hills as the temperature rose earlier. Was 2.5c with a bit of a sleet blizzard at the time - lovely! - although at least it means there’s more hill snow. After the stagnant weather for most of January, it’s becoming difficult to keep up with everything that’s happening recently!

Lots of people out enjoying the snow and some great views of snowy hills from the path to the Whangie (off the road between Milngavie and Drymen) yesterday.

Mammatus clouds here too earlier (thanks to Ross B I know what they’re called now )

Had a walk up Tinto in late morning today - should’ve been out earlier as I think it would have been brighter. As it was, the cloud closed in halfway up and refused to budge. Managed to catch what seemed to be the only snow shower showing in the radar for the whole of southern Scotland too. Still bright but hazy at this stage: Starting to get a bit more wintry, with thin covering of wind-scoured snow: Actually pretty wintry near the top, with some knee-deep drifting and an eye-watering wind: A small amount of rime on the summit indicator:

Braemar got down to -8.5, according to the link. Not sure there is much snow at village level, and I think you are right about the factors stopping it from going lower. If -10.3 (IIRC) isn’t beaten in the remaining 17 days or so of meteorological winter then I think this will be one of the highest overall winter low temperatures on record for the UK. Live Temperatures MEOPHAMWEATHER.CO.UK

Are you counting only the day at the beginning of January. There was another morning with lying snow, although that was at the end of November! I agree with your tally of 21 for last year!

Slopes off early yesterday afternoon and had a quick (but very bracing) walk up to the Black Hill viewpoint near Kirkmuirhill. Very nice light with the sun re-emerging after a heavy wintry shower. Only a smattering of snow above 200m or so. I noticed two quite prominent ‘sun dogs’ (or parhelia, to give them their proper name) - patches of light either side of the sun caused by light reflecting through ice crystals in the atmosphere (don’t go looking at the sun now, kids!!). The photo didn’t really come out, but I found one that I took a few years ago near Lanark.

Did actually encounter some snow yesterday, albeit 900 metres above sea level on a hill above a Glen Tilt. Pretty close to the geographical centre of Scotland, and far from the sea (in relative terms), you’d generally expect plenty of snow cover at the time of year, but this patch at the top of an east-facing slope was about the biggest remnant to be found. Looks as though things might become a bit livelier within the not too distant future, though, with better prospects of hill snow, at least.

Some snow showers possible in the north-east on Wednesday. Apart from that, the HP looks like staying here or hereabouts for a while yet. Was a pleasant afternoon for a walk yesterday, but didn’t feel much like mid-winter. The Hyndford Monument on Carmichael Hill - so everyone remembers how important the 2nd Earl of Hyndford was! Spot the hare. Sheep on neeps!

The forecast on the BBC news just had the current HP slipping away into the Continent at the end of the week...only to be replaced by a new high moving in from the west. Snooze fest doesn’t quite cover it... Took advantage of a gap in my work schedule yesterday to get out for a walk in the hills above Broughton. Dry and bright with a bit of a haze but the wind had a bit of bite to it higher up. The third photo shows the vast quantities of snow that had to be struggled through

A few bonus Strathaven pics from yesterday! A proper winter’s day but very fleeting, looking out at today’s conditions.

Yeah - it did seem to last quite well, mind you. Will all be gone by the morning as the temperatures will rise as the warm front moves through and the rain returns. Was going to take a walk up Tinto or something today but a look at the road conditions on South Lanarkshire traffic cameras put me off. Had a wee walk around the Strathaven/Glassford area instead.

Happy new year to all, on this strangely springlike first day of the year! At least the sun made an appearance today. Hopefully there will be some more wintry interest over the next few weeks.

Some very brief glimpses of sunshine today! Finally took a look at some photos I took on a walk in the hills north of Peebles on Monday. This represents about 75% of the sunshine that I’ve seen in the last couple of weeks, I think. Even then, you can see the progression from sunshine to mist!

Yeah, pretty wild here just now. Wasn’t really expecting it.

Snowfall last night seems to have improved matters (photo below shamelessly pinched from SAIS Southern Cairngorms blog) - looks like fun! Could be some interest for some of us on Boxing Day - with a bit of height, anyway - then very mild. Hopefully the mild spell won’t last too long, but it looks like the ‘form horse’ at the moment.

Looking quite lively in Leadhills - trees and buildings occasionally appearing out of the sea of white on the webcam!

A long winter in the Cairngorms! - Coire Cas car park this morning.

Everyone enjoying today's sparkling weather then? Its certainly balancing out the extended dry spell and blue skies from last week. Had a wander on the hills between Braco and Comrie on Saturday. Skies were pretty moody with snow showers over the Ben Chonzie area to the north. They did leave a new dusting of snow, and even the tops of the Ochils had a slight covering (in second pic below).

Sleet even here, at less than 100m asl. Changeable would be a bit of an understatement for today’s weather - one of these days that tries to trick you with a nice, sunny spell and then turns wet and wild in the blink of eye