Scottish-Irish Skier

Looks like a dusting of new snow M74 Beattock from the shower that passed over. EDIT South of Beattock visible on this cam. Defintely snawing and heading for fort SS. http://trafficscotland.org/livetrafficcameras/view/?cam=244

Does seem to be hints at that in the latest GFS runs, i.e. Atlantic breakthrough temporary rather than sustained. e.g. 00Z op, con and ensembles: Then 06Z: Usual uncertainties though and FI territory.

Meanwhile, bit of disagreement on the longer term outlook between the GFS and ECM the morn.

Aye.

Latest MetO has me for sleet turning tae snaw the morn then aw freezing up over the morn's nicht ready for another Soutra black ice carnage Wednesday morn*. I'll take that. -- *Was pretty surreal today. First car in a ditch I thought...maybe the ice. Then there's another further along = ok, black ice confirmed. Then there's the 4x4 getting dragged out by a recovery. Was like a scene from the Day After the Morn or something. Increasingly support tyres with the winter stamp on them as a legal requirement over the winter. In addition to keeping folks safe and traffic moving; think of the savings on salt and the harm to the environment it can cause being taken away. If our Nordic cousins can...

Aye. For example this could be one of those evening commutes where people get stuck up Soutra (A68) or on Middleton moor (A7).

Bad black ice in the borders the morn confirmed. Our back road looked friendly at a glance; nice and black. However, a sheet of ice at points. Soutra was carnage. Yesterdays mix of sleet and wet snaw frozen solid. 2 cars and a farmer 4x4 off the road in various smashed up conditions as result. Nasty stuff. Salt not much help in such situations as if you put it down while its still raining / water running off the road it just gets washed away. Looks like that's what happened as the gritters were out in force trying to de-ice but still very bad.

School bus driver was saying black ice is a problem locally here this morning. Quite a few cars slipping apparently.

Aye, just been to Edinburgh Airport and back. Rain at the house when I left with Sleet at Soutra. Wet snaw on the higher section of the bypass with the Pentlands white. On the way back snaw at Soutra and lying on the road. T has also dropped a couple of C at the house. Now 2.0 C with moderate wet snaw. #wintersover

Standard cauld, pishin rain here. 2.7 C. Models look no bad the day. Certainly going to see some colder weather in the medium term. Lots of nice pics posted above.

Latest MetO long term. Better than a kick in the teeth. Actual normal winter weather. Rain earlier melted most of my snaw. Currently T = 1.4 °C / DP = 0.7 °C.

Raining here on my snaw. 0.7 C. EDIT. Just read SW's post and looked up at the velux roof window. It's sleety when before it was just rain.

-2.9 min overnight. Currently at -2.2. Snaw perfectly preserved for now. Even the stuff on wee tree branches. Snawman built last night. Sledging enjoyed. = winter wonderland. EDIT only complaint is the council. They came along quickly after yesterday's snaw and ploughed / salted the road. Totally black with not even any decent ice patches.

The problem is that up here well beyond the 'far, far north of the UK', we can get snow in many places from all sorts of set-ups. Hardly baltic the day with uppers marginal at best and the borders got a decent dump. Hundreds of miles south you do need a special set-up to give even half of what I got this afteroon. A beasterly is about the only sure thing.

This is the morn's ECM ensembles and 00Z ops for it and the GFS. Then we have the GFS ensembles with the 06Z op. I know the ops are higher res, but.... Well away from means with a hell of a lot of scatter in members past 5 days from now. Outlook seems decent to me for cold in immeadiate term. I don't really want -15 and my screenwash tubes freezing etc. -5's cold enough for me. Just less rain, frosty, sunny mornings and some decent falls of snaw like today would be fine. Jeez, I just got 7-8 cm from what looks like -3 uppers and 1 C air temp. Hanging around too. All tae play for.

There's not even an excuse about cost and changeover. Mrs SS has those new style all seasons which have snow tread + ice snipes - so get the wee snaw approval symbol - but are fine for rain and dry summer roads too. Sure they lack the performance of a full summer tyre and are not as good as a full winter, but you don't get stuck in the snow or slide all over the place and unless you are racing in the summer, they're fine. She's just come back from her first trip in snow on them (I've had a go) and she was well chuffed. No probs in 10 cm of fresh. I like my full summers and full winters so will continue to swap with the seasons, but then I drive 70 miles round trip and like my driving. If you are not that serious, the new types of all seasons are really good. For an unpredictable climate like scotland they're probably the best option in fact for your average motorist.

Home. That was cool. Met it at Soutra, but that was still clear. By the time I got to Lauder was whiteout with massive flakes. At least 7 cm at the house and still snowing. Photos coming. EDIT Here we go:

Looking well tasty on the Hawick cam. Now starting at Earlston just a couple of miles south of my house. Staying at work for now. Want to time it so I meet it pelting down as I approach Soutra. No fun getting safely home before it arrives. EDIT. Mrs SS reporting arrival at the house with garden turning white. Nice. EDIT2. Wish me luck. I'm off now.

Looking at the Hawick and Carter bar traffic cams and thinking I'll drive home early. More for winter tyre fun, notably over Soutra, but also just in case people start sliding and hold me up like almost happened last time (luckily there was room to drive past them all). EDIT I can see people have been probably sliding at Carter bar - tyre tracks wildly crossing lanes where there's no overtaking on a tight bend.

Good to hear you dodged a bullet there Ravelin. Hopefully not to much damage to your neighbour's properties. I recall your pics of where the water was before and the huge volumes of water needed to bring it higher. It's nuts that came about. That band of rain (or snow it seems?) is still over Peterhead, although finally fading now. --- EDIT Temperature actually dropping as the sun is coming up. Was 0.2 C when I got out of the scratcher just before 7:00, now -1.0 C. Could be a bit icy the morn as while this area has largely escaped serious flooding, it's still soaking wet with big puddles and wee temporary burns on roads.

So is that winter over then? --- T = -0.8 °C / DP = -2.5 °C Was hoping for a drive in the snaw. Looks like I'll just have to keep an eye on it on the Soutra webcam at work.

Pish turned tae snaw and lying on the roads in the NE at A96 Foudland. http://trafficscotland.org/livetrafficcameras/view/?cam=63

You don't need to use twitter/have an account to read a twitter feed; all you need is an internet browser, be than on a smart phone or PC. I don't have a twitter account but have a few pages bookmarked for instant updates when required. Here's Traffic Scotland's page: https://twitter.com/trafficscotland Just a webpage that updates when new tweets appear. It's really a good way of getting info out quick and accessible to all with basic internet. Better than facebook and just like some updating feeds on e.g. the BBC 'live' pages.

Too quick out with the gritters / ploughs for my liking. Although pot hole filling on the back roads has improved massively since 2012. Before it was like they'd been carpet bombed. T dropping away here. 4.4 C and a bit of a breeze. Liking the EURO4 for a bit of winter driving the morn. ECM 12Z decent enough too for keeping our block in the medium to longer term. Guy on BBC radio 4 on the way home was talking about the pattern change leading to cold and potentially this recurring with a deal of confidence.

I see loads of stuff on Traffic Scotland Twitter. I have to say their main website with the map isn't that great for 'current incidents'. A68 has been closed in the past for thing like accidents and often opened again before it even made it to that site! Maybe down here in the borders we don't exist either. --- Oh and maybe some folk don't realise, but Traffic Scotland are only responsible for A or M class trunk roads. They do tweet stuff about other minor roads in towns and cities, often re-tweeting from councils who are responsible for these. https://trafficscotland.org/about/ They retweeted this earlier: And this just now: Sounds bad. Stay safe all. Hope the waters don't reach your estate Ravelin.