NorthernRab

Do you think? There's not much out there at all yet?

It depends on what you mean by "place" - the snowiest "place" in the Highlands would be somewhere like Sgor An Lochain Uaine or Cairn Gorm, that is, it would be a mountain. The snowiest settlements would be hamlets in the Badenoch area. The snowiest villages and towns would be found in Badenoch as well, like Dalwhinnie for example.

I'd rather a Northerly toppler! I'd argue that these are actually more Christmas-like than sustained cold

Doesn't mean that other people shouldn't give their own opinions or even challenge GP - how else will people learn? Agreeing for the sake of agreeing is as bad as disagree for the sake of disagreeing. The ECM usually struggles with such patterns compared to the GFS, but what with all the low pressure systems making their way towards the UK it's a tricky time to be making predictions.

OK, after all the fuss yesterday, it is NOW snowing in the Scottish Highlands around the Inverness / Kinloss / Tomatin area.

Snow in Inverness according to my dad, quite heavy too.

which date/month is the latest that your location has ever received? MAY which date/month on average has the last snowfall? MARCH which date/month is the earliest that your location has ever received? OCTOBER which date/month on average has the first snowfall? NOVEMBER which month is the snowiest when it comes to snow lying? JANUARY which month is the snowiest when it comes to snow falling? JANUARY which month is your snowiest (lying and falling, and depth) in your records? DECEMBER 2010, MARCH 2004, JANAURY 2009, DECEMBER 2009

Inverness, Central Highlands, Highland. Streamer from Moray Firth or a Polar Low hitting the Highlands from the North NE wind Doesn't need to be cold for long before the event

It's not snow - the "white" on the ground is the light from the webcams, it's on there all year round. The "snow" at Altnafeadh is quite likely just very heavy rain - if it was snowing at all these locations (the temperatures are far, far too high) we'd all know about it from members of Netweather who live in Highland Scotland. I hate to be the bringer of bad news and to spoil the fun, but don't threat, there will be snow soon enough in the Highlands!

Quick question, can any one name the biggest Scandi high cold events of the past 30 years in particular? Thanks

Can we not just answer the man rather than mocking? You'll find most relevent links in this thread Weathe20:

Aaron is correct - parts of the Caspian Sea area have milder winters on average than parts of the UK, the Baku region (capital of Azerbaijan) for example being milder than many parts of the UK. You're not being greedy enough AWT - as Scottish people what we really want are Northerlies and North Easterlies

First evening frost of the season in Inverness and just in time for everyone having to go outside! All the luck as they say.

Just like hot fans only like hot if they are relatively cool and not suffering from heat stroke, non?

I can confirm that it snowed in Aviemore on the 19th of October, but it was quite brief it seems. Just checked to see if my memory served me correctly and there were a few updates from friends on Facebook on that day. Snow and sleet showers in October are not very unsual in the East Highlands, they would be a bit rarer for Lady of the Storm as she lives in the West Highlands, where temperatures are warmer and most of the settlements considerably lower in altitude.

I just checked some webcams around the Ob River region of Russia (where the large area of new snow supposedly is) and most of the webcams show snow, although there are a couple that don't.

Can't see anything in Inverness, which is very unfortunate considering just how far North we are, there seems to be a fog. Checked the webcam for other Highland locations: Stornoway, Brora, Kylestrome, Kyleakin, Cairngorm, Fort William etc - nothing?

First dig of the season at the Ptarmigan, Cairngorm, Scottish Highlands (from Facebook)

It's started in the Scottish Highlands: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32323463@N03/6257753003/

I shouldn't think so, perhaps a few degrees warmer than that but I'd imagine -3'C or so - a nice frost all the same!

Yesterday: Today:

September the 11th, little change from what I can see:

I feel like such a fool, all this time I've been wondering why you were only forecasting for North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Lancashire - didn't realise that you meant everyone north and everyone south of these places too!

Considerable growth of snow cover in eastern Siberia and Alaska. Compared to 2010:

I don't really buy that just because the last few winters were colder than average that we cannot see another colder than average winter. Under the "law of average" or the law of large numbers, there's absolutely nothing to stop this winter being colder than last (or indeed the next four) - casinos use this exact same tactic to entice people to play roulette (by displaying the last 10 numbers on a screen with their colour). When we consider that climate is forever changing and going through different periods of warming and cooling, the idea that there is some underlying "average" that must be balanced out over just three winters of cold weather (!) is a bit weak imho. The diagram below expresses quite nicely my point. In the long run things are indeed more likely to balance themselves out, but I certainly would not say that three years is "in the long run."