Spindrift2017

Re: the 1950/51 winter mentioned above, I've cribbed a couple of photos from Flickr (taken by the late Adam Watson) showing the exceptionally deep snow cover in the Cairngorms. The first one shows Garbh Coire Mor of Braeriach, with an estimated depth of 25m + at the base of the cliffs. The second one is from upper Glen Feshie, and apparently shows the River Feshie completely covered over with snow. I doubt anything quite like this will ever be seen again in our lifetimes, unfortunately!

Is that Aberfeldy?

There would seem to have been a Met Office station at Logie Coldstone years ago - it crops up a handful of times in the list of annual low temperatures (including the UK’s record March low of -22.8 on 14 March 1958).

Lowest in October so far was a few fractions of a degree short of -5, I think, in Kinbrace (Sutherland), about 7-10 days ago. Weather on the Scottish news today mentioned -4 at Tyndrum as last night’s low. I’ll guess a low of -17.6c at Altnaharra as the overall low for the coming winter.

Massive clap of thunder and almost simultaneous lightning overhead in Bothwell just now (south-eastern outskirts of Glasgow). Torrential rain and hail. Apart from a few distant rumbles of thunder, I hadn’t seen any proper thundery activity in this area this summer until now, although there was some in the north-east when I was there a few weeks ago.

There’s some hill sleet and snow showing on the radar near Braemar - if it reaches the main high Cairngorms plateaux further west (as forecast) the pink blob should increase and there should be a smattering of lying snow. The late Adam Watson studied summer snowfalls on the Cairngorms 1944-2010 and 1-2 days of ephemeral fresh snow can typically be expected during June, the June record being 9. July and August snowfalls are a lot less common, even on the high Cairngorms. I saw a notable one at the end of August a few years back, mind you, when drifts persisted for several days. Although it might seem unusually cold for June at the moment, the study showed a long-term decline in summer snowfalls and an increase in the number of snowless summers.

Some lying snow on Cairngorm, with more showers incoming.

I don’t understand why there weren’t (I don’t think) any warnings in place for north and upland north-east Scotland as snow closed two A Roads (the Glenshee and chicken Bridge/Tomintoul roads) today, with much heavier falls than regions further south. It’s almost as if the Met O believes there is nothing but mountain goats north of the central belt. Note for future reference - a certain place name above Strathdon autocorrects to Chicken Bridge

Some proper snowy pictures on the SAIS blog today - Northern Cairngorms catching the heaviest falls. http://ncairngormsblog.sais.gov.uk/2019/04/deep-snow-3/ Remember February, when people were wearing T-shirts and driving convertibles!

I think it’s just wind turbines causing radar interference as there are quite often bright blobs on the radar NE of Kilmarnock even on dry days, in the vicinity of the massive wind farm at Whitelee. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitelee_Wind_Farm

Interesting (if slightly concerning) article by Iain Cameron about the disappearance of Cairngorms snow patches for two consecutive years, and whether this might be indicative of changes in Scotland’s climate. https://t.co/4gfJXqjVNg

Was up Schiehallion yesterday and there was very little snow to be seen anywhere - even the distant Ben Nevis and Cairngorms resembled the end of April, as you say, or even May. Hopefully some snow will return to the hills in March. We spotted this ptarmigan looking a bit vulnerable in its white winter plumage.

Not sure about technical terms, but in some parts of Scotland it might be called a watergaw! An excellent weather word in my view https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/books/scottish-word-of-the-week-watergaw-1-3095898

Same here - plenty of good old-fashioned cold Scottish rain lashing doon tonight - hopefully the hills north of the central belt will get a good snow top-up tonight and tomorrow morning. Last few Lanarkshire snow snaps for now - taken on Saturday.

A nice wee surprise covering from that heavy shower that somehow sneaked through the gap between the hills (a Tay-Clyde streamer?!). Just battled through drifts of up to a centimetre between Motherwell, Bellshill and Uddingston

Yeah, plenty of frost and blue sky today here after some quite dense freezing fog had cleared. I don’t mind the lack of snow much (honest!) I took some snaps at Strathclyde Park this lunchtime of rime on the trees. Lots of greylag geese pecking at the frozen ground!

Not in the same scenic league as Glencoe, but it turned out quite nice down by the Crawick Water on the Lanarkshire-Dumfriesshire ‘border’ yesterday - snowy Wednesday afternoon walks two weeks in a row! Started off in a snow flurry but soon brightened up.

Not that it stops it from being a stunning image, but it’s actually Lake Michigan in the foreground (a freshwater lake the size of Wales!) Weather in the American Midwest can be pretty extreme. The polar air can travel down there across thousands of miles of land without warming up the way it does when it crosses the open sea. The Great Lakes produce lake effect snow by convection in the same way that the North Sea (occasionally) does for us during an easterly. Some of the temperature swings can be pretty crazy as warm air from the Gulf of Mexico can make its way northwards. St. Louis, Missouri is forecast to have a temperature swing from -17C now to +16C by Monday!

The difference between here and where you are never fails to amaze! We got a slight covering from a heavy shower this morning which disappeared during the day. All the shower activity this evening is either sinking down into Ayrshire or dumping most of the snow over Argyll and fizzling out as it approaches the Glasgow area.

No great depth of snow in rural South Lanarkshire, but had a nice crisp walk around the Douglas area this afternoon - temperature was still about -2C at noon and I don’t think it got above freezing. This was the scene just a few miles up the road on Saturday, so today was a joy by comparison!

Talking of Airdrie, here’s a photo from ‘87 of some hefty snow piles at Monklands Hospital (not my photo - I was not quite 7 years old at the time!)

Thunder, lightning and heavy rain here now.

Some spell of weather over the last few weeks, eh? Particularly in the west. In the absence of any profound meteorological observations to share, I thought I’d share a few photos taken out and about during late April and May (the first one being near Scotland’s snow capital - Crail ). Will maybe manage some higher hills during the summer, depending on the weather! Old track, Balcomie, near Crail Old drove road near Broughton Mennock Pass South Queich, Ochil Hills (Lomond Hills in the distance). Old drove road near Skirling Friesian cattle below Loudoun Hill, Ayrshire

A covering now at Leadhills as the band of precipitation moves very very slowly across SW Scotland.