[Scotland Cold Spell Discussion Part 12]

They just keep on materialising... it's a constant..

[Ramping Thread]

Should change the sub-title of this thread to

Ramping .............Reality..

[Scotland Cold Spell Discussion Part 12]

Would that be the M 8

Indeed it is - glad you enjoyed the word play it even had a sign up for those of us unsure why we were driving at 25 mph..

[Scotland Cold Spell Discussion Part 12]

I was working tonight and had the mispleasure of having to drive the mate from Livingston to Edinburgh.

The traffic cams don't do it justice - if the freeze kicks in overnight .. Altnaharra @ -11 just now and this extends south , then these roads are in trouble.

The traffic reports I heard from across Edinburgh are just repeating the same - an early sign of the trouble this weather can cause with an eye on Tuesday / Wednesday.

This is J2 Claylands heading west.. down to one lane and remember this is Scotlands busies Motorway the main arterial route between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

[Scotland Cold Spell Discussion Part 12]

The wetterzentrale site has a great feature for animating charts over the winter months to compare this cold spell to previous...

Have not got time to search til later but this is a a great tool to review synoptic patterns over historic winters.

[Scotland Cold Spell Discussion Part 12]

I check the fax charts, GFS, UKMO, NMM(if it's in a 36 hour timescale), ECM and, for convective events, a bit of experience and common sense! The charts for Tuesday/Wednesday have me a bit stumped, because while there is a more northerly element to them, the flow looks pretty much straight from the north sea for eastern areas, not to mention the chance of fronts/troughs etc., but I think we have a reasonable chance of seeing quite a bit of snow, while the easterly shown on the ECM looks a bit easier to call as days on end of easterly snow, with real similarities to 1987, I think.

Thank you for the reply - am trying to learn so much very quickly and the learners area doesn't always cover everything.

[Scotland Cold Spell Discussion Part 12]

Just awesome channel of cold on the forecast charts - this freeze keeps on developing.

The GFS run shows the cold from the continent entrenching itself over the UK until the end of next week !

Potential for lowest temp, potential for consistent 2 days of snow

Lomond - what do you use for projecting precipitation, the fax charts? SST's?

[Scotland Cold Spell Discussion Part 12]

Hail followed by decent snowfall here.. starting to feel colder already, think tonight will see some cracking low temps.

with a little melting earlier today on the look out for some icicles !

[Scotland Cold Spell Discussion Part 12]

Cheers LS knew we had the cold set up, not switched into this enough yet to get a good handle on streamers,troughs, shortwave and figure out the ppn.

[Scotland Cold Spell Discussion Part 12]

Going to be much colder overnight tonight by the looks of this...

[Scotland Cold Spell Discussion Part 12]

Been snowing for a couple of hours in Livingston this morning.

Heavier earlier, just a light dusting right now..

Will try to get a photo of the top of my shed later - it has a perfect set of layers on it where the snow has fallen then frozen, then a new layer and so on..

It is currently onto the 6th layer !

The hits just keep on coming...

[Scotland Cold Spell Discussion Part 12]

The model discussion thread has lightened up now that the prospect of whiteouts moves further south - happy for them .

With my limited weather interpretation knowledge its easy to see that this Winter is a belter, reminds me of early 80's whiteouts as a kid in Aberdeenshire - I have one very vague memory of a storm which blacked out the sky, looked tornadic must have been a monster low before dropping mountains of snow.. 80 - 82 I think.. We have had nothing like that snowfall yet, but its the temperatures that are the exciting part.

How many days now is it we have had solid white stuff either falling or still on the ground with temperatures around freezing ?

I think last Monday was the only time I have witnessed any mild melting of icy branches on trees.

The models for 72 hrs out make you reach for another layer of clothing just looking at them - its just so many features at once. Arctic air - Easterlies - whole atlantic blocking from Greenland High - that sat pic is ridiculous ! Polar Lows. What a time to be on here - its great fun..

[Scottish Cold Spell Discussion Part 11]

am interested in seeing what it does to that bank of fog sitting over Norway

[Scottish Cold Spell Discussion Part 11]

NOAA Sat Pic of snow cover across the country.. Apologies if posted earlier just got the email from them.

[Gfs / Ecm / Nogaps/ Ukmo]

Thanks Alza & Snowman - cleared up some niggling questions for me, thanks in advance to all who reply.

[Gfs / Ecm / Nogaps/ Ukmo]

Am a newbie on here and am quickly deciphering the model technical discussion threads with limited expertise.

Would really like someone to explain in their experience the validity of the different charts and their accuracy, or do folks have favourite.

If someone could also breakdown the acronyms that would solve another puzzle.

If this poll misses another choice Mods pls edit it, ty.

Thanks to BF for splitting my brain re Madden Julian Oscillation and JH for the links on the currently topical Polar Lows

.

[Scottish Cold Spell Discussion Part 11]

All over in 15 minutes started as hail then turned to snow , some blue skies towards Edinburgh in its wake..

[Scottish Cold Spell Discussion Part 11]

Decent whiteout here

[Scottish Cold Spell Discussion]

More snow in livingston - beginning to resemble Sweden here now..

[Scottish Cold Spell Discussion]

Blizzard in livingston just now - wind blowing snow around in all directions, then pausing it ( bizarrely wind holding snow in a kind of vortex before dropping it) , then hammering it down again.

Interspersed with hail. A good few cm's so far.

Enough to cover the already tundra street and deal with the mild warming this afternoon.

Back to cold spell business

[Scottish Cold Spell Discussion 9]

Hogmanay at home in the comfort of my own home this year -

absolutely zero point in going out in that weather.

What does everyone think -10 and snow?? or just -10??

[Scottish Cold Spell Discussion 9]

Equivalent of a monsoon in hail here just now - noisy!!

[Scottish Cold Spell Discussion 9]

No sign of any let up in the cold air anytime soon and the charts for 01/01/2010 show little sign of that pattern changing.

We have solid thick frozen snow now everywhere. If there is more to follow then the anticipated continued freeze for the end of this week then there will be seemingly no let up and travel won't get any easier.

Plenty of cold.

http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/nogapse_cartes.php?&ech=18&mode=1&carte=1

[General Model Output Discussion]

Can someone please explain the Three Letter Acronyms used on the model threads and also what the different charts represent.

I am not completely daft but basic terminology explanation would help us 'lay' readers dip into this thread.

Presumably one is for air temps at a certain height = potential for snow. And another is for precipitation.

If any one is patient enough to do this would be appreciated as i cant understand why folk are arguing between different charts validity or strengths or weaknesses.

[Scottish Cold Spell Discussion 7]

Snowing here in Livingston.

Its not heavy just a steady fine falling, if you can imagine an overcast day when there is a fine drizzle in the air as opposed to rain - its as if this is the water type except its frozen and falling in the tiniest flakes.