Soaring Hawk

Thank you for the forecast LSS and thank you to Blitzen, LSS and Cheggars for your kindness.

Absolutely stunning photo diary! Day eight looks so exciting with those enormous waves. I would have had to be dragged away kicking and screaming. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your diary and leering at the landscapes, so much so that I've bookmarked it so I can indulge whenever I'm missing my favourite part of Scotland. In direct contrast (to both your weather and photo quality) here are some on a still and sunny November day. Took these with my old little camera and can't wait to get back there with my new beastie. Em, can someone please give an indication of weather on Friday into Saturday please? We will be driving up to Glasgow, probably late at night to avoid traffic, for the funeral on Monday 25th. (Sadly we did lose our precious family member but we were with her at the end and I like to think her spirit will be somewhere up in stunning Sutherland which she liked so much.)

Have had to drive back to Glasgow (south side) through the night, arriving at 05.12 because of a family member critically ill and in intensive care. So mixed feelings of excitement and joy to be back but desperate worry and sadness because of the reason why. However I can do a snaw report: There were literally dozens of gritters either spraying the car or parked up along the M74 ready for the snow to start. And start it did at 04.30. Gently at first but by the time we got through East Kilbride and Busby it was laying on pavements and untreated roads. At 5.10 it started blowing about and became heavy with 50 pence flakes. Accumulating astonishingly quickly (I love winter tyres) and looking stunning in the lamp lights. As a point of detail, in reply to the above, the snow on Sunday night and continuing through rush hour and until lunchtime around London and the M25 was easily as heavy as now. Got 10-12cm half a mile from M25 and there was only a yellow warning issued. (when I left at 10.30pm last night we still had 2-3 inches in the gardens). There have been more snow falls down there than usual this winter but with big investments in gritters and clearly learning from Scottish expertise, local authorities have coped surprisingly well and no-one takes much notice any more. Except, obviously, The Daily Fail and The Expressed... Edit: oh poo, nearly stopped now.

Heaviest snow of the winter this evening. Still coming down very heavily. Went outside about 15 minutes ago and measured just over 3 inches on garden table. Not sure how much longer this will go on for but have to crawl into bed. Night all.

Just so you won't roll your eyes too much at the southern softies..... if it hasn't melted by the morning rush hour this will be why the media will be boring on about the heavy snow overnight. This bit of the M25 is between half a mile and a mile from my temporary English house. There are supposed to be 4 lanes in each direction under there somewhere. Snowing very heavily after a day of heavy rain with roads awash with huge puddles. Almost feels like Scotland !!

In reply to John Mac; Junction 20. In the last few minutes the stretch between 20 and 21A now looks like this. If it keeps snowing at this rate for much longer.....

Laying very quickly on the M25 now in the few minutes since I posted the same shot. Started to blow around a bit more in the last 5 minutes and accumulating very quickly in the gardens.

Ah ha! I may not be able to see the village roads but this is the M25 at the two junctions I have the choice of using. Jctn 20 is about half a mile away and Jctn 21a is three quarters of a mile. Really coming down hard now.

Still snowing heavily here. Between 1 to 1.5 inches on garden furniture and parked cars, athlough the roads were so wet (flooded in a lot of places) when I was out this afternoon that there must be less settling there. Can hear cars going very slowly, although can't see roads from the windows as our apartments are in large gardens. Looks lovely with heavy snow in the lights around the building

Am obviously hoping for snow for southside of Glasgow and East Ayrshire around Stewarton and nearby villages but I'm praying and praying, promising extreme penance and servitude for all eternity and doing deals with God, Allah, The Pope, the new Arch Bish of Canterbury and even the Free Wee for some of the white stuff to fall on BFT's house to cheer him up so he can use an excited gif thingy instead of flying teddies! I feel a mission coming on....

Maybe this one blew in from the Western Isles? http://www.bbc.co.uk...w-west-21259473

Morning all. The Press and Journal : The Stornoway ferry was forced to abort her voyage across the Minch in the teeth of hurricane-force winds last night. The MV Hebrides turned back for Ullapool after coming directly in the firing line of a violent storm racing up the Minch. Her skipper made the decision not to let passengers suffer a painful trip in horrendous conditions. Stornaway Gazette : High winds continue to batter the Western Isles this morning (Wednesday) but causeways have re-opened. The Braighe is open but is being monitored in the run up to high tide at 8.30am. Baleshare, North Ford and Eriskay Causeways are open at the present time. Last night Coastguard Rescue Teams assisted Northern Constabulary in closing the causeways between North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Eriskay as storm force westerly winds coincided with very high tides. Using their 4x4 vehicles, Coastguard Rescue Teams from Griminish, Benbecula and Lochboisdale worked with police units to close off flooded roads and causeways until conditions abated. At 8pm last night the Hebrides Range on the West side of South Uist recorded south westerly winds of 57 mph gusting 84 mph. The winds were combined with driving rain, coastal sea spray and some roads awash with the tide. Carol Collins, Watch Manager at Stornoway Coastguard, said: “This stormy atlantic weather has been well forecast over the last few days with an amber weather alert issued by the Met Office for the area, and a flood alert issued for the Western Isles by SEPA. “In these poor conditions, we ask that the public take extra care and avoid travelling unless absolutely necessary.†“We are grateful to the volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers who have helped out this eveningâ€. Damage to a property at Leverburgh last night meant some homes had to be evacuated. Gusts became far higher after 8pm than quoted above. I notice Misty Queen, Milkmaid and Weathermaster stopped posting reasonably early last night. I hope they are all OK, haven't sustained damage and have some electricity. I have a confession: I was concerned about the potential damage and disruption this storm could do overnight and was hoping that everyone in the N and NW would be OK as I went to bed..... The result is I had a bizarre storm related dream last night; NL's cows were starting to blow away high into the sky and I was running round with lots of other people (presumably NL and his family were some of the others) trying to rescue the remainder. Now we had dozens of cows swirling around about 20' high, tethered with thick rope by one ankle to stakes driven into the ground. And then we were all congratulating each other and drinking whisky for a job well done as we watched these poor animals thrashing around above us. Maybe I need to seek my own psychiatric counsel.......

Ha - Happy Burns Night! Just don't let wee kitteh out in that lot!!!

SS you are SO lucky! Not only all that snow you caught on camera but this wee beauty too. I am overwhelmed with Kitteh envy.

Em, no thanks! Even imagining attending a Conservative party conference seems rather more seductive...... Lovely to be able to read all your snow reports and gaze at the snow porn photos. Hope you've all enjoyed playing in it, you wee scallywags.

Radar shows it has passed me but it is still coming down. That's just over 14 hours of continuous snow. Had a great afternoon in Verulaniumumum Park in St Albans dodging the tiny tots (and their Daddies) as they got out of control on their sledges. Probably a good thing it has, mostly, been fine flakes as there are a lot of older people in my village and it is going to be difficult enough for them tomorrow as it is. A good snow day!

It was referred as a 24-36 hour period of significant snow earlier today on the BBC forecast so I think you should all start To Believe. Say it after me; "I Believe" ( to music, with a bit of clapping and the occasional swaying might help..)

Keep the faith my Kilted friends... The 10pm forecast looks great for you tonight and tomorrow. As one other Southern Softie offered, I too would come up and help by lobbing a few snowballs, hijacking the odd sledge and generally getting in the way but the roads are getting a tad messy here after a day of snow. Am sure my lovely Scottish winter tyres would be up to the journey though and am sorely tempted! Hope you all, finally, get to enjoy a level 12 on the SM chart but stay safe

That nice Helen Willetts has just said eastern Scotland is getting significant snaw and lasting into Tuesday. Could be nae skale or work the morn ya dancer snaw tomorrow or even The dugs bollix snaw?

Has been snowing at Stage 5 and slowly accumulating on the SM Scale (or should that be the Sadomasochism scale?)but now dropped to a 4.

Steady fine snow, accumulating nicely.

After several hours of very small flakes, although steady and slowly accumulating, it turned heavier around 2pm and we have 4 inches in the village park and MBY. Back to tiny stuff now. Took a few photos and will pop them in later.

Started snowing five minutes ago and already a light layer over everything. Sky very dark and gloomy. OH insisted on going to a meeting today and will have got there OK but it will be interesting to see how long it will take to get back...

One would normally visit Mr Waitrose but the nearest is in St Albrans and the traffic would have been dire at the time I would have been trying to get out of the city. Mr S, who is simply everywhere around here, is only 5 minutes from me so I decided I could cope with a quicky. Do you not have lots of snow left from Monday evening / Tuesday lunchtime? Think you will get more in the next few days!

I was planning on visiting Mr Sainsbury anyway but could barely get into the carpark, people literally shoving each other out of the way around the vegetable section; no potatoes left and barely any vegetables, most of the fresh meat section empty, hardly any milk, hardly any bread and the queues at the checkouts were worse than at Christmas. The poor checkout lady said it has been like that all day and she thought Christmas was quieter. Seems everyone has been snowpiling.... OK, yes, I did get some chocolate and a bottle of wine. Oh and some petrol in case there is space around abandoned cars to go out and play with my winter tyres and take lots of lovely photos.