skifreak

The Loch Morlich AWS which is Peet Bros ultimeter station recorded a peak screen temperature of 21.2ºc early this afternoon with a relatively low humidity for the Highlands of 43% - Fohn effect of the Cairngorms despite relatively light winds. Was also very pleasant again in the West until the inversion fog on Rannoch Moor decided to rise up the mountain after lunch.

Went for a 3 hour walk on Rannoch Moor this afternoon, never added to the t-shirt I set off in. Bit bonkers for November, not a breath of wind most of the time and finally no ****ing midges!

HC (or anyone for that matter) got any experience of Vredestein Snowtrac 3s or 5s? Weighing up between them and Firestone Winterhawks at present, the Snowtrac's have rave reviews for snow / ice performance, but the Winterhawks appear to be a better tyre in the wet. If anyone's got an experience of the Snowtracs and how they compared to their summer tyres on cool wet roads I'd appreciate some feedback! Ta.

Places where footage emerged from last night probably didn't exceed storm force, but the narrow extreme wind band means where the core passed over things will have gone from merely wild to unimaginable very fast. Despite the headlines about the windspeed, the greatest risk to most people from this storm is the rainfall.

It's definitely picking up on that La Manzanilla beach cam, first time I've seen the water get beyond those bench things as well. Not sure if the camera is loose or if someone is still there adjusting it! :o

The locations where the most persistent patches occur have extensive plateau areas above providing a big fetch, so if it's cold enough for the snow to drift off these areas and still accumulate then sufficient snow can build up in October to form the first lasting snow of the new winter season. Obviously it will be some time before we know whether the first significant snow falls turnout to be lasting snow or not. Potentially 4-6 inches accumulating on the tops in the West with significant drifting. Might just have to have a crack at getting some October turns in on Meall a' Bhuriidh at Glencoe! Will be watching webcams and radar closely tomorrow.... snow dance please!

A beach cam that could be in the firing line later http://www.lamanzanilla.info/web_cam.html .

Records of surviving snow patches do, but the end of August snow survey as currently conducted was started in 2008. The peak measured snow depth in the upper Main Basin at Glencoe in 2015 actually surpassed the 2014 figure. While it's difficult to make direct comparisons with 1994 where the top ski tows were buried and out of action for much of the season, it should be noted that: The lift towers on the Main Basin T-bar are relatively new and are all several metres taller than the old ones which were present in 1994 were. Glencoe took delivery of a new top of the range Kassbohrer PB600 winchcat - they had vastly more snow shifting power than in 2013, let alone 1994. Without the modern kit, despite significantly taller towers the Main Basin T-bar would have been hopelessly buried and out of use. ^Digging out the Main Basin T-bar in March 2014. ^For perspective - the Patrol Station and base of the two upper tows. Note the grey vent poles for the transformer in both images, also the March 2014 image note how the photo is taken looking down on the bullwheel of the top button tow, compare to the second photo and note how the ground actually drops away sharply (onto a black graded ski run). The March 2014 photo was taken standing on the snow, ordinarily you'd need a drone to get that view!

Which is why there was so much snow fall on Western mountains in particular last winter and why it fell to lower levels than in 2014. That was the very noticeable difference between 2014 and 2015, the low level Access Runs at Glencoe were only skied a handful of days in 2014 despite record breaking snow depths burying the lifts up the mountain, but in 2015 many weeks of skiing to the base at 1200ft on Rannoch Moor was possible, indeed even mid April it was still possible to ski to around 1600ft and within 5mins walk of the carpark (main ski area at Glencoe starts at 2200ft). Of course those looking for low land snow would have been less impressed, but I'd happily take 14 or 15 again - but with less stormy weekends for the Ski Areas!

Quite cool, largely dry, light winds, overnight frosts. Looking quite a good week for the remaining snow patches, particularly if the high retrogresses and lets the flood gates open from the North at the end of the month - though big snow falls in October on the mountains makes me nervous! However enough to get a turn or two on a nice grassy patch of Meall a' Bhuiridh would be nice to keep the run of consecutive months going through October.

Probably going to be a cracking week for you lot, as I'm off somewhere hopefully warm and sunny for some heat before getting into winter mode for a week!

Has the weather been cancelled today in Scotland?

How is this for a cloud?

Pleasant enough to sit outside with the laptop at the moment in Inverness. [edit] Probably shouldn't have posted that looking at the black cloud to the SW though!

The 00z GFS ensemble chart for Aberdeen has a 850hpa temperature spread ranging from -6ºc to +17ºc at the end of the run. I think that should cover most bases?

Another grey non entity of a day in Inverness, meanwhile it's nudged over 20ºc at Loch Morlich under clear skies now an early inversion layer burnt off.

in Scotland it's going to be Bawbag IV, Bawbag V, Bawbag VI...

As for winter I'll happily take a repeat of 13/14 or 14/15, but for the ski areas it would be useful if there were fewer weekend storms! D-J-F 2014 and M-A-M 2015 would be perfect - though I think we might actually lose a few lifts out of sight at Glencoe and Nevis if we got a winter like that!

5 minute radar shows it dry over CairnGorm, I can assure it is anything BUT!

Having just jumped here from the Scottish Politics thread, what happened to our 'Scotland' badge that we used to have on this thread? As for the weather, its dark and it doesn't appear to be raining just now!

You could go this route instead: Max wind speed depends on phone model, but have recorded speeds upto 68mph with one - though your arm will soon tire of holding it above your head at those speeds!

I like the exponential trend....

Out west the midges appear to be trying to make up for lost time!! Worst kind of weather, mild, still and damp too!

It's got very dark in Inverness...

14c and 95% humidity and still in Inverness. Feels like something ought to happen, but radar and lightning detector suggest nothing other than heavy rain in Eastern Scotland?