Northernlights

AS 1. COFFEE 233. COFFEE 232. LADY PAKAL 3. KANE 1.

Curently just under 4oC here with moderate sleet falling, calm.

Since coming to live here in 1962 I have always seen wintry weather in March and April with numerous days of soft hail and snow showers, for instance late March early April 1968 where having sown half a field of barley before 4 inches of snow fell one evening 2 weeks later when the other half was finally sown after the snow had melted the first half was through the ground. We moved here from London and my mother always said Scottish springs were very cold and very late . This will have a lot to do with sea temperatures which will be approaching their lowest levels of the winter at this time so if we do get a northerly airstream it will invariably snow even if temperatures are quite high in any sunny intervels. Cold snowy weather is guranteed if I say in mid April we will put the cattle out in a weeks time !!!! What has really changed is the lack of any really hard air frost in November or December with grass continuing to grow and the leaves staying on the trees for longer, we have given up growing potatoes which break dormancey early and are sprouting in an ambient store before Xmas and can no longer be sold. 40 years ago we had to add more staw depth as the autumn progressed to protect them from increasingly harder frosts after lifting them in mid October We now grow one old variety which will not sprout till mid March.

Bright blue sky all day here, frost lay in the shade all day, no wind. A beautiful winters day, -1c now like last night , did the parsnips and sprouts a lot of good for tomorrows lunch, Merry Christmas to everyone!!

First proper frost of the year this morning -0.5C, ice on all the puddles and the fields a pleasure to walk over at 8.00am with the surface dry and crunchy. A big change from all the rain and mud of the past week!

Just been out for some shopping and noticed the yellow flowers of Broom and Whin bushes in the headlights ,daffodils on their way also here. In the past after a long spell of rain and cool winds it oftend turned suddenly dryer and colder and the ground froze very hard because it was so waterlogged between Xmas and New Year putting a stop to all ploughing on the farm , maybe the models are onto something. New Year has always had better chance of frost and snow here than Xmas so the bulbs will go into suspended animation if it happens.

Blizzard conditions now o"C wind rising fom the west and still snowing heavily. Chrismas card scene in the garden , can"t believe it!!!!!

Hevey snow here now and settling 20 miles east of Inverness at 75m above sea level, temp 1oC has fallen from 4oC at midday

My son cut the grasses round the house here hopefully for the last time this year, while I shifted cows and and calves to a fresh grass field where there has been 3 inches of fresh growth in the last 3 weeks Autumn growth is going on for longer particularly when we missed the forecast frosts last week due to cloud coming down overnight from the north. Has been one of the best autumns for grass growth ever although we are also feeding a winter diet alongside to make up for any mineral shortfall in the grass . Lovely mild breezey drying day here today dust flying when I shifted the cattle !!!

Massive display of fork lightning here to the west around 9.30. pm probably near Nairn as I think the storm came from the foothills of the Caingorms down the Nairn river valley. No rain here just east of Nairn but the radar does seem to show a downpour to the west of here.

Lovely winter sunset over the Moray Firth tonight with the snow shower clouds to the north tinged red. Remeniscent of a frosty February evening, currently -1c and falling. Looks as though it will be a few weeks yet before we can turn the cattle out to green growing grass.Country is very bare and not green and the daffodils are only just starting to flower in south facing locations.

Heavy wet snow starting to settle, +1.0c , strong west wind. Just like November day!

Snowing steadily here ,looks as though its on for the evening, 0.5c about 1" on the ground now. Have had around 10 days of falling and settling snow this March This snow is settling on some small patches of drifts left from the begining of the month.

-7c here at 6.30am here this morning, high cloud to west, must be your snow slowly coming this way.

More heavy snow showers this morning on the south side of the Moray Firth measured 25cm on the grass to south of house sheltered from wind, drifts of 1metre next to N facing walls . Wonder if this type of weather will repeat through March as frequency of N and E winds is at its highest in the spring Very stormy looking at times with black clouds to north bringing curtains of snowfall across the firth every 20 to 30 mins.

Frequent snow showers still falling here on the south side of the Moray Firth 60 to 80 cm drifts at the back door of the house so it looks as if I will have to dig the car out of the garage in the morning if the roads are open. Currently-2c , its been a while since we"ve had such an intense wintry spell

Heavy drifting snow showers all day here on the south side of the Moray Firth became almost continuous this afernoon 10 to 15cm but difficult to measure. We are at 80 metres a.s.l. with a daytime max of 0c , currently -1c with plenty of heavy snow showers to the north heading our way.Schoolchildren on country buses were sent home at lunchtime. Pure arctic day!!!!!!!!

Covering of snow here in Nairnshire 0.5 inch, mod E N E wind, 0.C ,200 feet above sea level so perhaps not that local. Maybe there is more to come?

Heavy snow showers this morning last hour Moray Firth area N of Scotland Very black to north again so more coming. Temp 0c Sunday 13th March