ScottSnow

You would think that if governments do start interfering with the weather it would have to be agreed in a worldwide context, for example if they tried to ensure milder weather here with low pressure in the Iceland area the Scandanavian countries would get more snow to deal with. Would they be happy with that ? Personally I believe it would be a big mistake to start to try and manipulate the weather.

Just had a short heavy hail shower here. The car thermometer is fluctuating between 3C and 4C.

There was deep snow across the border regions as well, I think there was around 2ft in some locations with places like Coldstream, Galashiels and Hawick badly hit. The pictures taken were at fairly low lying areas in northern Scotland, certainly a lot lower altitude than Buxton in England. Aviemore is at around 600ft above sea level and I'm certain Grantown is lower than that as it is situated further down the Spey river. I'm sure there will be some pics of the depths at Cairngrom somewhere on the internet, there was certainly some massive drifts up there even on the road up at around 400/500m.

My Dad works on the rigs off Aberdeen in the North Sea and he says they have had snow most days in the past two weeks which is extremely rare. This winter has already been historic in Scotland in relation to Dec-Jan combined temps. The ski areas are having the best season for years and most areas in the highlands have had some sort of snowcover for the past seven weeks. In the context of the 'even larger teapot' this winter has already been 'historic', in the sense that many predicted we would not see a spell of winter weather like this again. If February is relatively cold and there are more snow events countrywide I would personally class it as 'historic'. Hopefully it will go down in 'history' as the winter that heralded a return to colder winters in the UK.

Excellent pics Rab

And another from the 6th Jan.

Yes your correct and let's hope it gets here sooner. However in my opinion the UKMOs not as good as the GFS although the overall pattern is maintained which I suppose is the main thing at the moment.

I like to ski and some of the best skiing is in spring, particularly April, when the weather is that bit more comfortable. So my perfect spring weather would be cold, snowy snaps between dry settled spells with frosts at night until around late April. After that I like warm, sunny and dry weather so I can get the BBQ going and enjoy warm evenings in the garden.

Just checked the UKMO 00z and although not a terrible run, the difference between it and the GFS at 96hrs is that the Atlantic low makes further inroads on the UKMO and the very cold weather is just kept out of reach by 144hrs. Not terrible but not great lets just hope the ECMWF and GFS 06z the play ball.

Yes the overall pattern is maintained by the 00z, another brick in place. Although FI can only be taken with a pinch of salt, the cold weather is maintained throughout the run with high pressure entrenched to the north. Backs up my hunch that IF we get the initial easterly then we may well see a prolonged cold spell again. This winter has been the joker in the pack and I wouldn't be suprised if we are dealt another ace.

This is what the conditions have been like in Scotland this winter... None of these were shot after 3rd Jan I beleive so you can only imagine what conditions were like by the 10/11/12th after even more snow.

As others have pointed out the most important thing at the moment is maintaining the overall trend. Once the cold weather is here then we can discuss snow potential but thats a long way off yet. However my opinion is that this winter has really been the joker in the pack, so if we do end up with high pressure to the north and entrenched cold I believe it may be harder to shift than people think. The cold has never really left Scotland since mid Dec and if we get this projected easterly I can see the cold weather hanging on for a good while yet.

Although I don't live in Scotland. I do like to go skiing there so I keep a keen eye on the snow conditions. This year its been excellent since mid December. Here in Newcastle this winter has been remarkable as well. There's been 25 to 30 days of lying snow so far, numerous ice days and a max depth of around 1ft of snow. Certainly the best winter so far in my lifetime (I'm 23) and hopefully there will be more cold weather to come in Feb and March.

Well the 18z maintains model agreement and height rises to our north with an easterly setting in. After the uncertainty of the past few days I'm certainly not going to get excited yet, however if we do get the cold air/synoptics in place I think the cold may last some time, just my own hunch going off previous cold spells this winter. Just hope the models hold up after the reversals of the past week. As for snow, the cold spells of Dec and Jan have shown that once the cold air is in place then snowfall can occur almost anywhere and really can only be forecast at very short range. Some of the best spells of snowfall here weren't forecast and it just reitterates the fact that once cold air is in place then oppurtunities will arise.

I don't keep weather records or anything like that but I will point out some observations from up here. Continuous snowcover from 31st Dec to 15th Jan. December had 50%+ of lying snow for around 10 days and never completely melted meaning we had nearly a month of lying snow. The biggest depth of snow was around 30cm which was around the 11th Jan and certainly the deepest snow here for quite some time. We have also had snowcover for the last two days of the month, so nearly 2/3rds of the month have had snowcover. Jan on its own would have been remarkable in the 'modern winters' but coupled with Dec it has been a truely exceptional spell of weather by modern standards.

Around 2-3 inches here and have heard reports that near the coast in places like Sunderland and South Shields there is around 10 inches. The snow is not really melting and will be here tomorrow so we will have had snowcover on the ground for around 2/3rds of this month. A remarkable winter so far.

It has been snowing on and off all day although mostly just light snow. TWS - I can certainly believe them depths at your parents house, there is over a foot of snow here in Gateshead.

About 1ft+ of snow here and it snowed another couple of inches last night. We've had continual top ups since the first snowfall on New Years Eve. Certainly the most snow here in a long time and now that the wind is picking up its starting to drift. We haven't seen these synoptics for years and it proves that we can still have good cold spells with plenty of snow. Has this spell been a one off or will we begin to see colder winters again?

Lovely pics TVW. Here in Gateshead there is the most amount of snow since the early nineties, and we have had lying snow for around 18 days. There was a thaw of the December snow around the 28th which left cover only on grass or on north facing paths, but we've had lying snow again since the snowfalls on December 31st. It has been a remarkable cold spell, particularly in the north of England and Scotland. I think in December even with a fairly mild first third temps in the majority of Scotland were nearly 4C below average and they had continuous snow cover.

Around 1ft of snow here which is remarkable considering how that we are near the town centre and around 12 miles from the coast. Excellent three weeks of cold weather.

It has been snowing heavily here in Gateshead for the past hour. I would say there must be at least another inch on top of the existing cover. This has been a great few weeks of cold weather.

Moderate to heavy snow for the past half hour here in Gateshead.

Well here in Gateshead there has been a huge amount of snow recently. Lots of snow before Christmas that lay for around 10 days then the New Years evening snowfall with intermittent top ups and then a big snowfall last night. Certainly the most snow in recent times. I'd say theres at least 1ft+ in places.

It was snowing lightly outside with big flakes a few minutes ago.

Cold and clear here at the moment. There was a slight thaw this evening when the temps must of rose briefly however everything has frozen back up now. Theres around 10-12cm of level snow and with the possibility of more snow over the next few days hopefully we will end up with a good depth of snow.