NorthernRab

Frosty and sunny morning here with a lot of ice and frost about. Occasional light winds but largely settled and calm. Next week looks interesting!

A potential NE'rly on the cards next weekend. I don't like ramping as you all know but this is my favourite set up for two reasons. 1: It pleases almost everyone. Very few parts of Scotland tend to miss out; Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, Edinburgh, Dundee, Perth etc are all in the mix for seeing some decent snowfall should conditions play ball. 2: It often leads to a foot of snow here via the Moray Firth & Great Glen streamer. Fingers crossed folks!

You might say precipitation has turned very wintry across Scotland by this point.

Can happen, the storm of January 2015 (I think?) was much stronger here than forecast with winds gusting up to 95mph here. Many old forests lost many trees, roofs came off, sheds ended up in neighbours gardens etc. Pretty sure one of our members from Lewis lost a roof and had to be rescued? Similar to biggreyface above, the only time I've been frightened by the weather. Remember going outside briefly to get the dog and I had to actually take shelter behind a wall for a few minutes with him it was that bad! I think the consensus on here was that it was courtesy of a sting jet.

Plenty of breeds that you need to be one step ahead of in Inverness!

Well likely no surprises to hear that Inverness is foggy. Nice swirling formations over the city at the moment.

Based on the latest GFS, it seems to have worked!

Much better heights over Greenland on the latest GFS!

Thanks! Me, HC, Northern Strath, Northern Lights etc away out to Chanonry Point later to sacrifice Sean Batty to the snow Gods.

Quite surprised to see how confident the BBC / Met are on a northerly after Christmas. Looks interesting!

Still some snow on the ground here (high up, not sea level), surprised it's made it through the mild weather so far. Gradually disappearing though. Christmas looks like it's got potential for some snow - all to do with how that lobe of low pressure sits to the north of us on the day itself but something to keep an eye on with one week to go!

Currently just below freezing here. 8/9 days with snow cover. Not a bad start to winter!

Difficulty with 3 month mean charts over Jan-March, as mentioned by @bluearmy above, is that they could contain 5 weeks of blocking in Jan / early Feb of various intensity followed by 8 weeks zonality or vice versa. In short, not particularly helpful!

You could always move north

Looking a little closer to a change back to a cold northerly just before Christmas. One to keep an eye on!

Seems to be snowing at sea level in Inverness? Bit of a wintry mix though!

Heavy snow incoming for Highland?

Is my memory playing tricks on me or does the phenomenon of a bridge of ice between Iceland and Greenland not have quite a cool name? Something along the lines of Odin's Tongue or similar?

Fresh fall of snow here overnight, currently -1.3'C.

This chart is frankly hilarious Waist deep snow in Scotland for the festive period? Ach go on.

If ever there was a case for not taking FI charts too seriously, this is it. GFS 06hz GFS 00hz

re Christmas - look north, not east perhaps? Edit: And no, that wasn't a cryptic crossword clue.

I think it's too far out to say with any degree of certainty. Where that high pushing in to England next week ends up will likely determine what we end up with I think. Positives are that we're consistently seeing mid Atlantic ridging, that the stratospheric vortex is under strain, that we've thus far avoided the COD (circle of death vortex formation) and that the historic analogues point to Scandinavian or Icelandic blocking (the latter being preferable for us in Scotland). In short, all to play for with a lot up in the air for the time being!

That was light and patchy (had some nice d'awww snowfall which covered everything in a light sparkly coating) - it's the heavier stuff to the north over Sutherland that's caught my eye! Not to mention the stuff out west which looks like it might be heading towards Glasgow?

Anyone else think that system to the north is looking a bit more hefty than forecast? Fair bit of precipitation about and marching well inland without much hassle!