Snowandrocks

Lovely but cold day today after another 4 or 5 inches of powder overnight. The wind got up for a bit in the afternoon with snow blowing around in the usual places but decided to go for a XC ski to make the most of the sunshine. Conditions were great in the shelter of the woods but almost unskiable on the areas that had caught the full amount of unconsolidated powder. Need fatter skis - will definitely sleep tonight. The coming thaw should actually improve the skiing greatly, for a while at least! VID_20240118_133625.mp4

Big flash - thunder snow must be somewhere close. Hope you caught it MS? Great end to a very pleasant evening sitting in one of the demo hot tubs surrounded by snow. Seems to have been out over Rhynie - impressive the flash can travel so far. I guess it seems brighter with the snow reflecting.

Our friends in Dunvegan on the west coast of Skye have just sent this over. They're currently XC skiing down the main road through the village. Quite unusual for them to get proper snow right to sea level. They usually have to come over here to stay with us to use their skis. VID-20240117-WA0011.mp4

The real fun on that little road is when the wind gets up and it starts blowing in - had a very sketchy run over there one night last winter and only made it through the worst bit by taking repeated charges at the drifts in near zero visibility. Was thankful to be in the Hilux with all terrain tyres on it. Had visions of having to walk home! Snow coming down nicely now here too, unsurprisingly.

The Facebook Deeside weather chap with all the weather stations dotted around Aberdeenshire is going for as much as 40cm of additional fresh snow by Friday morning. Might be optimistic I think but would be nice on top of the existing deep cover.

I suspect the schools would be more resilient if the council insisted that staff and contracted buses had snow rated tyres to get rural contracts in the first place. I drove a taxi as a student and the thought of driving professionally all year round in Aberdeenshire on summer tyres wouldn't have even entered my mind. It's not realistic to expect that every road will be kept black, regardless how thoroughly treated they are. In any case, I used to love snow days - I think I probably got more benefit from XC skiing, sledging and being towed around a field by a quad bike than I would have from a day in school!

The last few years have actually been pretty decent for snowfall and low temperatures here in Aberdeenshire, I think we've had at least one lengthy spell each winter with deep (>20cm) snow each winter and temperatures below minus 10 (~ minus 20 on a few occasions) for several years now. That's absolutely not to say that the climate isn't warming on average but do remember that lack of snow in Southern England isn't necessarily representative of elsewhere in the UK and that weather events will still happen against the overall warming trend.

Flat calm with moderate snow on for the last few hours - pretty tame snowfall rate compared to the showers last few days but still slowly accumulating. Perhaps getting on for an inch of fresh.

I wonder if the temperature will rise for long enough to consolidate the snowpack before the wind gets up. The current deep lying light powder blows around whenever there's even a slight breeze, a gale would be messy!

Even in recent years we've had sub minus 20 locally here I'm sure? I've got a photo somewhere of the temperature gauge in the pickup that I bought in 2020 reading minus 19.5 outside the house during the daytime. I seem to remember others on here posting similar.

Fair bit of fresh overnight and it's blowing around in the the more open spots too. Made it out to drop the OH off for the train in Insch, she didn't look overly amused standing there! VID_20240115_080740.mp4

I had a couple fitted last year when I was getting some other electrical work done and the electrician would only fit Osram Ledvance floods. He reckoned everything else on the market is cheap Chinese garbage that just isn't up to living outdoors in Aberdeenshire. They seem good quality to me, nice warm white light and are made in Germany too - slightly more expensive than most but certainly not outrageously so. Back on topic, snow showers still blowing through and should add up to a reasonable amount by morning if they carry on. Idiot dog sleeping beside the fire now after his busy day doing snowman impressions.

Happy enough with how this spell is going so far - it's been snowing for most of the day with more fresh snow forecast everyday at least until Thursday. This idiot is seemingly enjoying things too! HwVideoEditor_2024_01_14_152442337.mp4

Can confirm it's coming down quite quickly - quick enough to settle on the back of this idiot. Ps - he is free to come inside at any time he likes! HwVideoEditor_2024_01_14_152442337.mp4

Probably pushing things a bit but given there looks like a good possibility of decent showers for several days and minimal if any melting then I reckon 20cm+ is easily possible. That little feature popping up to the north looks interesting too.

A cracking winters day today - mist and fog cleared during the morning to leave a lovely flat calm crisp sunny day. I made pretty good progress working on my new shed although my metal framing square did freeze itself to the table when I went inside for lunch! I'm quietly optimistic for a bit more than the met office have suggested but we'll see. Should be nice powdery snow at least with the forecast uppers.

If your summary of the last 6 months of Aberdeenshire weather is "not too bad" then you're onto a winner. I've never seen rain like it! Even my mother (who grew up just outside Fort William) was saying it's felt like she'd moved back to the west coast. Skis also waxed after a managing to squeeze in a couple of half days at Glenshee already!

The slightest dusting here after a reasonable day - still ice everywhere but at least it's not muddy! Got my fingers firmly crossed for next week - decent Northerlys seem to have been in fairly short supply in recent years.

Stars somehow sparkling away above what seems to be very light drizzle which is adding to the layer of clear ice on every hard surface in the garden. Getting sticks from the shed was a careful affair. Next week still looking promising I think.

Calm with the sun breaking through the mist now at Glenshee - road was clear in time for opening.

Yep, ach, hopefully get a half day in at least. Will take XC skis in case to kill some time - failing that, it'll likely be a fry up and lots of tea in the Mountain Sports cafe. Rain still lashing down here.

Fingers crossed - have day tickets booked for Glenshee tomorrow. We have a beginner with us again so will be happy enough if they manage to open what they had today. Hopefully it doesn't turn to rain at that level and that road isn't in too much of a state by morning.

We were also briefly "stuck" in the chaos at Huntly yesterday afternoon. Luckily managed to get onto the A97 towards Rhynie which although badly flooded and deep in a few places was passable in the pickup. There were several cars and a lorry abandoned on one section but you could squeeze past with a bit of care. I had a wander through in my wellies before risking anything so safe enough. Lecht have no power but looks like they got a decent amount - won't be easy to clear the road though. Heavy wet drifted snow will be like concrete I imagine.

Earlier torrential sleet now turned to heavy wet driving snow on a howling wind - miserable but should hopefully be doing a lot of good for Glenshee and the Lecht.

Very pleasant out there, managed to catch a photo of the the ten minute spell where the sun makes it over the hill at this time of year. Hope everyone had a good day yesterday.