Snowandrocks

It is indeed pretty unpleasant out there away from shelter, I was just out with the dogs and thought about heading up onto one of the Bennachie tops as it wasn't too bad in the woods. I got about 100m onto the open hill before retreating back below the treeline. More sunshine is nice though. No sign of snow on the surrounding hills here either so it must have stayed wet despite the splodges of heavy sleet on the Velux before i went to bed.

After a very wet start it turned out pretty decent here today - near unbroken if milky sunshine. Managed to get my tin roof finished off that I abandoned when the snow arrived in December, hopefully i'll see at least something over the next few days!

Not a bad day here, quite windy but the unbroken sunshine is quite pleasant with a bit of shelter. Next week seems to have some potential by the looks of it.

Back from a few weeks visiting friends in sunny Muscat. Surprised to find a couple of patches left on the track where the plough piled up some drifts but as Northern lights says, it's obviously been quite dry. Not much in the way of mud even in the usual spots. As an aside, Oman was much more interesting than I expected. Muscat itself was ok, amazing beach aside, but the rest of the place is spectacular. Towering mountains everywhere, beautiful deserts and beaches, beautiful cool wadis to swim in, hot springs and almost complete freedom to drive or camp where you like. We drove(!) high onto Jebel Shams, the highest mountain in Arabia, to camp and had a great night albeit with quite an unpleasant sleep - bitterly cold once the fire went out with ice on the 4x4. At least it meant we were up waiting for a rather spectacular sun rise. Definitely worth a visit, and reasonably affordable if you ignore the flights and outrageously expensive but very flash hotels in Muscat itself.

As others have said, anywhere with a bit of height (100m+) in Aberdeenshire will get plenty of snow. Parts of Westhill are getting on for 200m ASL and so do pretty well for a suburb location. Further afield, the Cushnie area is pretty good (~300m) as is Strathdon, The Cabrach and higher parts of Deeside. Some of the side glens from Strathdon and up towards Corgarff are up towards 400m and are probably the snowiest inhabited parts of the UK. Bear in mind that they're also pretty exposed and conditions can get pretty extreme with severe drifting snow occasionally lasting days at a time.

Odd weather this morning - headed out to pick up some stuff with the pickup reading minus 6 at home. By the time I hit the Oyne Fork it started raining quite heavily, still at minus 6! Having experienced freezing rain before i quickly set the blowers onto the screen at full heat and slowed to a crawl - even then the ice quite quickly spread down the from the top of the window. The 3 or 4 other cars pulled up with the drivers scraping the windscreen suggested they weren't quite as quick with the heater controls. A quick look at the radar shows it was quite localised - by Inverurie it was dry and at the top of the tyrebagger hill is was 1 degree. Can only assume milder air aloft with cold air trapped beneath in the valleys. Even now, in Aberdeen, there's quite a thick coating of clear ice all over the pickup.

Blowing in a bit on the way up from the village. Suspect it might be a digger job by morning if it keeps up. HwVideoEditor_2022_12_14_210541489.mp4

As expected Fubar news (the Aberdeenshire local FB page) is full of reports of roads blocked or barely passable by drifting snow. It's not even really snowing yet either with quite a lot showing up to the north on the radar.

Wind really picking up now with some decent drifting in the stronger gusts - some reasonable drifts already formed across the road when I came home an hour ago. Could get a bit lively when the heavier snow showers come through later.

A good 10cm of lovely fluffy powder has fallen on the steps at the back door since I shovelled them this morning and still snowing lightly. I had to go to Fraserburgh this morning and although there wasn't much snow, it was pretty icy - this chap was entertaining to follow back. Full bore bouncing off the rev limiter as he slithered up every slight hill at walking pace! We eventually got bored and trundled past in the pickup. HwVideoEditor_2022_12_13_212808233.mp4

My little thermometer is currently showing minus 13.5c. Bit of a frost hollow in this little valley tucked in on the north side of Bennachie but seems a bit on the low side. Really need to invest in a better setup.

I think Aberdeenshire do a pretty decent job with the gritting considering the size of the road network and the endless little back roads. This spell has been pretty tough to manage as the marginal spells wash away any pretreatment. The snow then falls in a colder spell then quickly gets compacted into ice. The road that leads up the valley to our track has been ploughed and gritted every day despite being a dead end that only leads to four houses - it's still covered in ice/packed snow. The village pavements down in Oyne have all been ploughed and treated too.

Been snowing steadily for the past hour or so unexpectedly. Lovely dry fluffy flakes so the colder air must be digging in now.

Snow continuing to pile up in Aberdeenshire. VID_20221210_145103.mp4

Those wondering about snow depth with a bit of elevation in Aberdeenshire - quite deep! VID_20221210_145103.mp4

Been snowing steadily for most of the morning - quite wet at times earlier but still building up gradually.

Some rather spectacular lightning (I think!) here - bone dry oddly with a bright moon but 4 or 5 flashes lighting up the snow beautifully.

Met office showing the same for here but there's only a few showers showing up on the radar out in the Moray Firth so not entirely sure where it's coming from!

An inch or so of fresh overnight here with the odd flurry still blowing through on the wind. Met office going for heavy snow for the rest of the day but not entirely convinced - guess we'll see.

Oddly, it seems to be petering out just to the North of us. Following the track of the showers on the radar I would have expected something reasonable by now but it's still just the odd flake blowing in the wind.

Just been out with the dogs - still clear overhead with a bright moon but with the odd flake blowing in on a surprisingly strong wind. Not sure on temperature but the wet snow from earlier is rock solid and the road is like a sheet of glass.

A few reasonable snow showers still passing over but things seem to be clearing up. Just watched some Eurofighters circling noisily overhead. What're the thoughts on the next few days? The met office seemingly going for sleet showers with XCweather going much colder with some reasonable snow accumulations.

There's a covering here but nothing exciting - we seem to have missed the bigger showers earlier. As Ravelin says - beautiful moon tonight and the snow is crisping up nicely under clear skies. Astronomy from the sofa - brought to you by Velux.

Friend over in Cushnie just sent me this. Definitely flakes landing on the Velux windows here too in the heavier showers.

Chilly day with showers steadily turning sleetier as the day went on. Absolutely the wrong day to be putting up a new tin roof - my fingers are have just about thawed after an hour beside the fire. Hopefully things should look nice and white by this time tomorrow.