Snowandrocks

Oddly, after a wet start, it's not a bad day over this side of the hill. Gentle breeze, occasional brightness and everything drying up nicely. Always find it interesting how the weather can change over quite small distances. Working slowly through the ludicrous amounts of firewood I have to split - got at least 5 years supply from the storms!

Headed up to the Lecht this morning to an absolute cracker of a day. Light winds, warm sun and on the whole, great snow. Almost full car park too so good to see some cash finally pouring in after all the covid nonsense.

Snowing here tonight too (unsurprisingly, given I'm about halfway between MS and Ravelin!) after a lovely sunny, if windy, day. Heading to the Lecht first thing which could be fun if the wind and snow showers keep piling in tonight.

Bone dry here unsurprisingly - although the absolutely saturated ground and remaining snow from Friday is crisping up quickly so not all bad. Enjoy everyone!

Great couple of days - lovely fast snow for XC skiing and wall to wall blue skies and sun. Yesterday in particular was incredible - skied in short sleeves and have the tan lines to prove it!

Yep, I stuck a set of all season tyres on our 15 year old Honda estate when it needed new tyres a couple of years ago. It'll go anywhere it has ground clearance - amazes me when I see expensive nearly new cars sliding around in really quite modest conditions on summer tyres. Same with lorries - either stay off the road or fit appropriate tyres.

Still snowing steadily here, oddly still not a breath of wind - the friend I visited for the caravan over in Cushnie says it's starting to blow in so maybe the wind isn't too far away!

Snowing heavily here since first light, managed to go and collect the caravan though - enjoyed telling the driver of a stuck van that I was off on my holidays! Probably not far off 6 inches lying already but, oddly, not a breath of wind - snow falling vertically despite the mentions of blizzards in the forecasts.

Even the Slug Road can be a bit dodgy too sometimes, it climbs to 230+ metres and has a few decent hills to get up. Bypass to Milltimber and then out the A93 is probably the safest option if you don't have 4x4 or winter tyres.

I have to pick up a caravan tomorrow (extra accommodation for a weekend uni reunion at ours) from a friend near Cushnie. They're up a track at almost 350m and I then need to navigate my way back over the Brindy hill home. Could be a good test for the pickup! Took advantage of the half decent weather this afternoon and got the rest of the tree clogged up ready for splitting today.

All forecasts looking promising for tomorrow here now too. Pretty miserable outside at the moment - heavy driving wet snow with a cold wind. Hopefully dries up soon.

After being quite decent around lunchtime, the weather turned in the afternoon with heavy, persistent sleet. Not much wind yet though. Still got quite a bit done, and should get the rest clogged up tomorrow. Dated the tree to 1860, almost as sad about it as I am about my porch!

The automated forecast from the met has heavy snow all afternoon here too now. You wouldn't know there was anything dramatic happening from the current weather. Calm, pleasant with occasional sun breaking through.

A covering of wet snow here too this morning. Seems to be drying up a bit now though but obviously pretty heavy rain at some point overnight as the ground is soaking and the burn running well for the first time in ages. In other news, finally getting started on removing the tree from the house - the place is alive with the sound of chainsaws!

I'd written off seeing much going by the charts I looked at earlier but that looks like there might still be a chance of something. Fingers crossed!

There are differences in the building standards across the UK. There are standard exposure maps that are used to try to make sure the houses are suitable for the conditions they are likely to experience. Practical examples include 1) It is standard practice in Scotland to fully board out the roof with sarking boards before attaching slates or tiles. I believe in England they just use battens. The sarking stiffens up the whole roof structure. 2) When I recently ordered some roof trusses, they asked for my postcode so they could engineer the strength of them to suit the likely maximum snow load. In my instance, the trusses were pretty substantial as I'm halfway up a North facing hillside in Aberdeenshire!

Thanks both. I'm aware of the XC weather snow total optimism - I guess it just forecasts the rain equivalent and applies a multiplier. It might be right if it were lovely fluffy powder! I normally just take things as they come weather wise but we have some "toonser" friends coming to stay for the weekend from Edinburgh on Friday afternoon in a summer tyre clad BMW... I foresee a rescue mission if the snow does appear!

Does anyone have any thoughts on the likelyhood of snow this far north on Friday? Met office automated showing dry but the XC weather is still going for a decent fall.

From my, pretty uneducated, glance through the latest charts it looks like most of the snow seems to be South of the border at this stage. Still early doors though I guess!

Hmm, meant to have the tree surgeon guys starting on Wednesday morning to move the fallen tree that's still covering the house. It looks like it doesn't really get going on Wednesday night here so hopefully they get a good portion of it done before things get too bad. A decent snowfall on Friday would be great though, we have friends coming to stay and they're keen on getting out on the XC skis.

This is more like it - calm and sunny at minus 4 with hard frozen ground and a dusting of fresh powdery snow.

An unexpected covering here too - I only noticed when the dog appeared inside with snow on her back!

Dry and sunny here with clear blue skies but with a cold, strong wind from the west making the fallen tree batter somewhat alarmingly against the windows

Lovely sunshine, not a cloud in the sky, although there is evidence of some frozen snow on the ground in places. Cold wind too. At least I think it's still sunny out there, it's actually quite oppressive living inside a tree!

That's irritating about the water Ravelin - our spring fed supply is usually pumped but does still run very slowly by gravity. We can live quite comfortably with the woodburner for heat and a kettle, large pillar candles in lanterns and a gas ring/bbq if we want to cook properly. Our nearest neighbour invested in a good Honda invertor generator with his compensation money from Arwen. I went up to see them and they were living pretty much as normal - I think he said it was rated at 2.2kw but it was happily running his lights, fridge freezer, oil boiler and WiFi router. Very quiet little thing too. He keeps a large drum of aspen fuel which doesn't go off like normal petrol and should last over a week of normal running.