skifreak

Skis in the car for tomorrow or eeek today now! <_<

I'm going to bring in another gem to this thread. The BBC weather maps and lack of temperature data. The old temperature contour maps showed clearly the extent to which rural and/or more inland areas were colder than coastal regions even where actual figures were missing. The large square temperature symbols on the maps now mean there are far fewer figures given and they are all either coastal or large cities - most of the land mass of the UK isn't represented at all on these charts. On the old system there used to be temps for the Central Highlands and Strathspey and further in on the Moray Firth, these combined give useful temps for Inverness - the current maps do not at all. The lowest minimum on these charts has been -2c or so the last few nights when Inverness has been maxing at -4c. It was -10c in Aviemore last night and nothing to indicate inland temps in Scotland AT ALL on these absurd charts.

I'm going to wade in here in defence of Inverness as a City. Prior to the granting of the status as a 'Millennium City' by the Queen post 2000, Inverness was never a Cathedral City, yes it has a Cathedral but it did not meet the criteria. Historically more significant was the designation as a Royal Burgh. Population is fairly low down the list of criteria that would be used in Geography to define a city in geographical terms and even prior to official granting of City Status, Inverness ticked many of those boxes, particularly when you look at the spatial extent of Inverness' 'sphere of influence'. It certainly isn't big by population terms when compared to larger English towns, but more importantly it is a major regional service centre servicing a vast hinterland that includes the whole of the Highlands, many of the Islands, Moray and a sizeable chunk of Aberdeenshire (esp Media in terms of Moray Firth Radio). It's administrative influence stretches almost to Glasgow on the West Coast in terms of the Highland Health Board which swallowed the rural parts of the Argyll and Clyde board in a re-organisation. The Highland Council (of which Inveness is one of the district divisions) serves an area bigger than several EU countries and has a population of around 225,000. Moray has a population of approx 100,000 and the Western and Orkney Islands combined would be another 45,000. You could through in another 20,000 for Shetland which though has it's main ferry link through Aberdeen, also links to Scrabster via Orkney and falls within the area of Northern Constabulary and the Highlands & Islands Fire Brigade. All in we're nudging close to 400,000 and over that if we include sections of the Moray coast in Aberdeenshire. Another criteria that should be considered is the role Inverness plays as a major transport hub for the region it serves and as a major point of access to much of it's hinterland, with the major road, rail and bus links radiating out from the city. The 4 most important roads in the North of Scotland either terminating in or passing through Inverness (A9 (from South), A96, A82 and the A9 (from the North)). Media is another factor in considering the sphere of influence of a regional centre and the coverage of Moray Firth Radio is huge, the official transmission area stretches from between Fraserborough and Peterhead on the North East Coast, all the way round the Moray Coast to Inverness, then up the Northern coast of the Firth and along the far North Coast to Bettyhill - if you were to drive the major coast roads all the way round through this area it would take something in the region of 7hours and you'd have travelled 300 miles or so. MFR also covers most of Orkney on 102.5 and in other parts on 97.4 and 96.6 FM (from the top of CairnGorm!). As a transport hub, administrative centre to a population of over half a million when you include the health board, administrative HQ of the largest local authority in the EU (by area), main service and shopping centre for a population of several hundred thousand, broadcast media extending to within 40miles of Aberdeen, a travel to work area that extends out around the Inner Moray Firth in both directions, down the Great Glen and down the A9 to Dalwhinnie, with commuter trains running in from Kingussie to the South and Lairg in the North. It looks like it fulfils the role of a City to me. It should also be noted that the census population for Inverness is somewhat misleading, it only includes distinct portions of the city and misses out significant areas of population that are considered by the council as the "Inverness Built Up Area".

I agree with the similarity to last years forecast, it said it would be milder than avg but cooler than 2007, so we're trending in a more promising direction here. Seasonal averages don't always mean a huge amount for Scottish Snowsports, it's not necessarily the weather we get, but the order that we get it in that is often critical. That said, something broadly similar to last winter but maybe even a bit cooler (hopefully with the cooler bit coming from losing the worst mild soakings!) would be very welcome indeed for Scottish Winter Sports (not just developed snowsports). :lol:

Oops, forgot to update this thread. I re-located one of the CairnGorm cameras to look out from the mid-mountain ski club hut towards aviemore (centre of photo). http://www.winterhighland.info/testcam/lady.jpeg A camera looking down Grampian Road in the Southern End of Aviemore is also available at: http://www.winterhighland.info/cams/aviemore/mountain.jpeg (Apologies it appears to have gone down at the moment - and a reboot didn't bring it back up but will be checked as soon as I am down that way). There is also live weather from 2500ft on CairnGorm at http://www.winterhighland.info/testcam/ and if all goes to plan additional weather stations in Aviemore (690ft) and Glenmore (1100ft) are in the pipe line for later into autumn, giving a good altitude spread of coverage for the area.

The two Winterhighland Cameras in my post above are in the same building, but the top image is looking out the North end of the building instead of the South end as in Winter - thus giving a view towards Aviemore. The Current Links to the other CairnGorm cameras are (images courtesy of CairnGorm Mountain Ltd): www.cairngormmountain.com ^Ptarmigan Bowl Webcam ^Daylodge Webcam (Looking up Coire Cas) ^Ptarmigan Restaurant Webcam (View out over viewing terrace). Looks like today (23rd July) will be the last day of snow on the Cas Headwall, just a tiny spec now visible on the camera.

Interesting read, and like the sound of it. A winter slightly cooler and drier than last year (and given this summer) suggests at least the possibility of a winter not to dissimilar to last year but overall less mild and wet, perhaps due to less severe mild/wild/wet spells? At risk of incurring the wrath of many on here, I'd happily take a re-run of last winter, a slight improvement on last winter would be fantastic. One thing, if we can just get the settled mid Feb weather after a big dump of snow instead of a SW'ly blast next time round, ta very much!

Never mind next winter, who said last winter was done.... B) CairnGorm Mountain - Sat 21st June !!

I was looking at the GFS ensembles for Aberdeen earlier, the ensemble mean never even touches the rolling 30year average, always below. I'll take that for the winter!! Seriously, I'd bite your hand off if I was offered the same again as last winter! :lol:

Some photos from Glencoe on Saturday (31st May) from Jamie at Highland Instinct: ^Looking up to the snowfields on Meall a' Bhuiridh from the Access Chair. ^Spring snow turns in the Canyon on the middle slopes (approx 2500ft). More: http://www.highland-instinct.co.uk/gallery...200708/08may31/

Broadly the same again would do just fine as far as I'm concerned!!

Easy Gully looks rather tasty there!! Though the bottom set of photos is a bit off putting!

The Met Office are removing all the remaining webcams from their site on the 19th of May. The MetOffice cameras, esp the Aviemore one was very useful for gauging snow level in winter, and cloud level on the mountains year round. Will be missed. I wonder if it's more a bandwidth thing than a technology issue though? I've been experimenting with various webcams at Mountain Spirit in Aviemore the past few weeks and will put one of the new higher resolution cameras up permanently giving a view of the Southern end of Aviemore from next week.

Have you ever tried to ride a bike through a place plagued by bonkers hippy planners traffic calming onionse?? Perhaps some of these planners need to get off their fat arses and on their bikes. Narrowing roadways and throwing in obstacles or road features that mean you get air if you cycle faster than 5mph do not encourage bike use nor make it safer!

I have a temperature sensor problem! Do you find the enclosure provided usually adequate for preventing false high readings? I have a WS3600 on the balcony of the Scottish Ski Club Hut on CairnGorm and the temperature sensor has been mounted on a post at the end of the balcony facing East (it can't get any sun from the East due to the mountain!) so it's not getting direct sunlight. However a combo of the higher sun, deep snow on the balcony and very fresh snow all around and no wind is resulting in the sensor frying when the sun is out, currently reporting 10c - I think the extent of reflection of the snow is part of the problem, the other being that it is calm - this doesn't happen when there's a breeze. Any ideas or advice - I could move it onto the back wall of the hut, but then the hut might warm it up. It's higher of the ground than the standard 2m, but needs to be to ensure it doesn't get buried in a snow drift! Last hours data: http://www.winterhighland.info/weather/aws.php

Yes, Christmas Eve 1995. Hit NW Sutherland between 3 and 4pm not long before night fall. Absolutely hammered Shetland leaving roads under 30ft drifts. Was up a hill only a couple of 100ft above sea level in the far North West sledging with my younger cousins on snow that was already on the ground, saw dark clouds starting to build, but couldn't really see the sky to the North. There was a rumble of distant thunder, didn't take to much notice. The in a matter of minutes it went from bright and sunny to darker and darker. We kept on sledging and mucking about, flat calm as it had been all day. Then there was a gust of wind, couple of snow flurries went past and it just kept getting darker. Then there was a rumble, said to my cousin if it does that again I think we should head. Just then there was an almighty clap of thunder, echoing off the cliffs above, looked around and the sky was just evil looking. Heard this whistling noise.... and suddenly the stillness was replaced by a hellish gust of wind funnelling down this gap, that lifted my littlest cousin and his sledge clean off the ground.... his brother chased after the sledge and just as he caught it, the sky lit up and there was a deafening rumble, near pea sized hail started to belt us, and we hit briefly under the sledges!! We started making our way down what was only a few minutes to the house, but we were engulfed by a blizzard as if someone had just flipped a switch. Tied two sledges to a fence post and put my littlest cousin in the other and pulled him along! Got down to the house and I went back to get the other two sledges, was just unbelievable for low levels. Was blown over several times, the snow was so fine and powdery it was choking and you couldn't breath if you faced into the wind, it just took your breath away. By the time I staggered back down with the sledges it was less than 20mins from the first rumble of thunder we'd heard. It was now a full on white out and fumbled my way around my grandparents house, all the windows plastered with snow. There was already no way you could have gone anywhere on the road. Put the sledges in the shed, went inside (and had trouble closing the door with the wind!) and the lights were flickering. Less than 30mins after that first rumble, the power was out. Sitting there with an old tilly lamp for light by the open fire, the noise of the wind was just utterly unbelievable even for such an exposed place. We actually taped up some windows because we feared they would implode into the room, you could see the glass bulging with the wind! It kept raging for hours, then some time after 9pm, as suddenly as it came in, everything went silent. We could not see anything outside the whole storm, the windows were totally iced up. After a while of quietness we went out and it was perfectly still, the last of the snow clouds were clearing over the horizon and it was pretty much the most clear star filled sky I every recall seeing. The path around the back of the house that I had earlier dragged the sledges was now under 6 feet of snow! Looking down the road from what we could see there were clearly drifts of at least 10 feet (pretty much sea level on the West Coast!). Christmas Day dawned with a perfect blue sky, the powdery snow sparkling in the sun and the sea starting to freeze over in the sea lochs. Still no power and the temperature was below freezing in the bedroom, evidenced by the frozen inside of the windows and ice in the glass of water I took to bed ! Aye people were wishing for a White Christmas, but I'm sure there were at least a few in that part of the world that haven't wished for a White Christmas since! I can vouch for the fact that digging sheep out of snow drifts is a good work out ! With no power we lit up a BBQ with intention of spit roasting the Turkey, alas the power came back on early afternoon and the sub zero BBQ was abandoned !! Even on CairnGorm in a full on storm I haven't witnessed anything quite like that night. I was very lucky to have just happened to have been in the right place that Christmas Eve and I doubt any weather experience I have in the future will match it. An absolutely unbelievable event, no words can really describe how intense it was.

877mb half way CairnGorm, does that count?

If anyone is looking for software for a WS2300 or 3600 there is an open source suite of scripts available called open2300 and open3600 - just google for them.

I had similar problems with a WS3600 constantly locking up and crashing. I had bought it on e-bay from Hong Kong (I know what your probably thinking....) but it was exchanged for a new console and it's worked perfectly since then. It is currently 2500ft up CairnGorm Mountain and so far survived 4 months. It's running entirely of battery supply, both the console and the sensors. Only problem has been a couple of times the wind has shaken the thermo sensor so much that it's loosened the batteries and lost the connection. Haven't yet had any astounding windspeeds, firstly it's in a fairly sheltered location (relative terms here) for that mountain, plus with the battery power and wireless link it's only sampling to the computer ever couple of minutes. I had been minded to switch it to a cup anemometer and hard wire it to get a much better wind recording frequency, but the principle reason for installing it was to collect temp, humidity and wet bulb temperature data, so it's been a case of if its not broke don't fix it. Last hours data: http://www.winterhighland.info/weather/aws.php Highest wind recorded so far was 92mph. It's on a PVC ducting pole that is lashed to a wooden beam with lots of cable ties, it's not hard bolted so there is some flexibility and give in the whole thing - to reduce the chance of the pole snapping or the anemometer for that matter.

If this is right: That means I'm the last man standing !! Do I win a prize of a spring full of snow on the mountains?

Not sure of any Inverness webcams to be honest, the one of the castle that used to exist has gone (or at least I cant find it anymore). Don't have a camera I can plug in just now, their either in Aviemore or up CairnGorm! http://www.winterhighland.info/testcam for CairnGorm http://www.winterhighland.info/cams/aviemore for well Aviemore!

Pretty intense squally snow shower just giving it all it's got outside in the centre of Inverness just now, very black overhead and some pretty ferocious gusts. Wasn't expecting to see a flake and given how dark it has just got I wonder might Thunder Snow be a possibility! Not sticking here, ground to warm, but horizontal driving snow will be a shock to those outside that thought spring had well and truly sprung!! Snow starting to stick now on the webcams on CairnGorm, keep it coming!

I might just win this (as long as we're going by temperature and not suggested location - was a bit out there!) :huh:

Timmytour, as far as skiing holidays in Scotland go if your looking at getting your kids into snowsports then it would be very rare for there not to be sufficient snow for novices on CairnGorm Mountain by Aviemore. They have beginner terrain both at the bottom of the mountain (more sheltered for wintry weather) and at the very top of the ski area up in the Ptarmigan Bowl (which makes the beginner runs the most snow sure on the mountain). Last winter was apparently the second mildest on record, but there was continious snowsports on offer from late November until 15h April 2007. Are your kids of school age and if so would you be looking at going during school holidays? Depending on the year (and thus when Easter falls) I would be minded to suggest Easter time for first timers, as the weather is more likely to be settled and less cold, and the best conditions often come in spring. The granular spring snow that forms through the repeated winter freeze/thaw cycling during winter is one of the delights of Scottish Snowsports, the granular structure makes this snow extremely thaw resistant, it's fast, non sticking and doesn't get slushy (even in T-shirt weather) thus it makes for great learning conditions as it's beautiful to turn on. The potential advantage of not going so late in the year is the Lecht, about 50mins drive away from Aviemore. It is an excellent place for getting kids started, it has short gentle beginner runs right by the Carpark and Baselodge that are just perfect for teaching youngsters, and the magic carpet and handle rope tows greatly ease the learning curve by getting people onto meachanised uplift much faster. Once they've got the hang of it you can move back to CairnGorm if you want a chance of scenary. Downside of the Lecht is it's the lowest resort, but they have snowmaking on the beginner runs that can see them open and the ski school running even when there's no snow elsewhere. There's a big array of activities to do in and around Aviemore, and the Hilton Colyumnbridge a couple of miles outside Aviemore on the road to CairnGorm Mountain is an amazing place for kids (This is a Hilton like non other on earth - not one for a quiet weekend away from the kids ) Maybe for a first time you could get your kids to one of the various snowdomes, it's a lower risk way of getting them started, so if their not keen first time you've not wasted a whole ski holiday. Which is one advantage of somewhere like Aviemore for teaching kids, there is a whole lot more to do for families than there can be in a lot of dedicated ski resorts. You could make it a general family holiday with an introduction to skiing as part of it, but not the be all and end all of it, unless their hooked from day 1. Having a car gives you a lot more freedom esp with a family, but if you dont want to drive there or hire a car, ScotRail's overnight sleeper service from London Euston is IMHO the best method of travelling the length of the UK there is. The Highland Sleeper when it departs Euston has 3 seperate lounge bar cars for the adults! This option also saves a nights accommodation at each end and travelling overnight means you don't waste a day travelling.

Stoxs, take a look on Winterhighland or post the question on our forums at www.winterhighland.info/forum , as I live locally I'm not the best person to advise on B&B's better to come from people who actually make use of the accommodation IMHO. There's accommodation about Strathspey to suit just about every taste and budget though. On the mountain weather front it appears the WS3600 did survive a full on CairnGorm winter storm, unlike the vodafone mast across the Glen which failed! The weather has eased off and it's allowed our GPRS router to connect to a distant cell, weather data is coming in again, but not sure we'll get webcam images over this link and I fear the cams trying to upload will clog up the very limited bandwidth and stop the weather data getting through again. We shall see in the morning, and with three much more settled days hopefully the mast will be fixed and we'll have a full connection again.