Scottish-Irish Skier

I'm away to the Dolomites skiing this Saturday. Mrs SS will kill me if she's snawed in while I'm away. Or at least she'll do that when I get back. Typical that the weather gets exciting when I'm overseas.

I was almost gonnae say something last night, but chickened oot. Will just leave this here fir noo. sufficiently small I feel. 12z ensembles.

So I forgot it was going to be windy. Got up at 05:30 for a glass of water and to let the dugs out briefly. Then I remembered. So went to check on the bins (recycling) and they're not there, but 2 doors down and half empty. Mine and the one for the house behind. Rescued what I could in the dark and just been out to get the rest from the wood across the road this morning. Breezy oot, tae say the least. Winter gaun oot wi a sting in it's tail?

Rare 'mother-of-pearl' cloud spotted in Scotland WWW.BBC.CO.UK Stunning Nacreous cloud captured by BBC Weather Watchers in Scotland. From the BBC.

I didn't either. I just thought of Father Ted.

Nice. Hope there's mair snaw tae come so they can make full use ae it! Mountain railway reopens after four-year shutdown WWW.BBC.CO.UK The Cairngorm funicular had been closed since September 2018 due to structural problems.

Gonnae jinx it. Is a Sudden Stratospheric Warming occurring and will it bring the Beast from the East? WWW.NETWEATHER.TV Examining whether a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) is likely to happen and what effect it may have on the UK's weather if it does.

Another ice day here in the borders. Some melt and sublimation has occurred from the 5 cm or so we got 5 days ago now, but still feels very seasonal. Interesting that 'end of winter' charts have become 'normal winter' or maybe even 'better than recent years'... This doesn't look bad at all for what might come our way, and the ski centres should do ok.

Heavy snaw with some graupel here as that wee feature passes over.

[adds loch tae the north of the new hoose as a plus point] The BBC in London would call it 'Lock effect snow' while innocently talking about polar lows called 'Bawbag's Return'.

MetO suggesting I might get a wee top up in the middle of the night. Basically no melt here. Even the trees remain nicely coated. Was another beautiful winter's day.

Photaes ae the dug walk. Lovely and creaky underfoot. If you look closely here, you can see Dancer, Prancer, Vixen etc oot enjoying the weather tae:

Morning kilters. View oot the front windae here at Fort SS. . Yous are spoilt in Perth!

Some great overnight snaw across the ski centres. Open lifts and piste numbers growing every day. Windy here, but clear blue skies. Will be a nice dug walk the day.

Well that wind is raw. Chills to the bone. And I note the MetO have turned my forecast from heavy rain tae heavy sleet this evening. Higher border hills may well turn white overnight.

I've excluded the Black Isle from my house hunting searches. Nothing personal. Purely weather related. Meanwhile, Perth is a new entrant.

MetO showin wee snaw symbols fir this neck ae the wuids Sunday intae Monday. Fingers crossed! Certainly developing nicely at the ski areas. Snow now building to below carpark level at cairngorm. Mid mountain up looking increasingly healthy. Hopefully the funicular starts running again soon. EDIT. Is that folk skiing the Lady off the M1 Poma? Good if so.

Fair chucking it doon at Cairngorm. Wind daein its joab at Glenshee. With much mair tae come based oan this ootlook:

You can still watch ski sunday on the BBC, including via iplayer. BBC Sport - Ski Sunday WWW.BBC.CO.UK Magazine programme featuring skiing, snowboarding and winter sports. Apparenltly livestreams here direct from the FIS: Men’s Alpine European Cup Live Streaming WWW.FIS-SKI.COM Don't miss the men’s FIS Alpine European Cup races in Val d’Isère (FRA) which will be streamed live here! Closer tae hame, the Scottish ski centre operators will be rubbing their hands. Due to the cauld and the much needed cash! Dolomites have had very good conditions. Recent top-up has helped. Selva down the valley there is at 1560 m. Just 52 sleeps to go! EDIT Adelboden where the slalom was on the most recent ski Sunday is1350 m. In the western alps, anything below 1600 has been struggling, so greener around the bottom of the course here sounds right. Kitzbuhel in Austria is very low (760 m), and in some winters the downhill course (1700-760 m) is the only area with snow! All artificial. Although Austria does get away with lower altitudes as it's further east, so more 'continental' cold. The western / southern alps protect it from warm incursions coming in from the SW.

Got to wait to early March for this! Not been for a few years due to covid. Still, Cairngorm reporting -4 C and heavy snow: And regarding the Alps, the media have been overblowing things big style, doing real damage to the skiing industry by putting people of booking. While it's been a difficult start for resorts in the western Alps with runs at low altitude, the reality is that all the big ones that everyone knows (Les Arcs, Three Valleys, Chamonix, Val d'Isere / Tignes, Les Duex Alps, La Plagne..) have had good skiing. Basically, above 1600m, and certainly above 1800, there's been good conditions. French met office are saying the snow depths at 2200 m are average for the time of year. The eastern Alps of Italy, Switzerland, Austria etc all have had good skiing too. All the tales of 'no snow at all' are based on pictures of runs, mainly in smaller local resorts of the western alps, at 1000 m which are always risky early in the season, and it's not unusual at all for these to be bare sometimes if a mild spell appears before a thick base is developed. Exactly what has happened here. I remember going skiing to Schladming, Austria, in early January, in first year high school, which would have been 1987. The snow was ok at first, but not great depth, and by the end of the week it had melted to grass, so they had to bus us to the Dachstien Glacier. This is well before 'climate change' became the talk of the dinner table. 6 years later we had a similar experience at Badgastein. Ok up the top, but no return to the green valley etc, and again in early January. I've tended to book high (lots above 1600 m) and gone for first week of March. That's you getting the spring sunshine, but with max depth over the whole mountain as there's been time to build a huge base, but the spring thaw has not crept far enough up the mountain yet. Also avoids the French school holidays! Cairngorms NP and Monadhliath Forecast WWW.MWIS.ORG.UK EDIT MWIS report: All mountain areas of Britain from Wednesday, 11 January, 2023 A rapidly moving sequence of weather coming in from the Atlantic through the next 10 days. Frequent precipitation and strong winds, stormy at times on the mountains. Temperatures will vary, but often sub-zero on Scottish mountains, only brief periods of thaw; snow will accumulate over higher terrain, greatest amounts likely toward north/northeast of major summits. For England and Wales, higher tops near/below freezing for periods, but more marked periods of thaw, leaving typically patchy snow cover on high tops, but icy surfaces at times. Heavy rain and an ongoing risk of flooding, especially Wales. Showery days will bring hail and risk of isolated thunder. Aye, as Stormeh says below, looking good for a build up of snaw between the fences. Wind + snaw = guid in Scotland.

This site made me think of our past discussion. Maps of ski runs and pistes. From afar, downhill is blue and nordic yellow. Not just for ski bums, but also interesting in terms of understanding the impacts / land use. OpenSnowMap.org WWW.OPENSNOWMAP.ORG There are certain areas of the Alps where ski resorts are everywhere, such as the Tarantaise / 3 Valleys of France (favoured hangouts of mine due to the crazy amount of skiing on offer while snow sure due to high altitude), but zooming in actually shows how little is developed for snow sports overall. I guess when you are in the Alps travelling about by road, you tend to see lifts and pistes all over the place. But then that's because they are near the main roads that you are travelling on! Certainly my impression. But head off the beaten track into the massifs and there's a lot of wilderness. Maybe with cow bells in the summer pastures. EDIT Briançon as an example of map details...

Yes, it's mainly the western Alps that have it really bad. The more you go east, the better things are. I'm off to the Dolomites early March and the cameras there show not bad conditions, with things quite good higher up as you say. EDIT and a couple ae pics of a walk up Black Hill once the rain stopped. Was quite pleasant. Breezy, but that keeps you cool while climbing. Looking towards the Eildon Hills. South towards the Cheviots and England.

Not quite sure 'boom' is appropriate. Scottish skiing gets lift as European resorts struggle for snow WWW.BBC.CO.UK Favourable conditions on Scotland's slopes come as some resorts elsewhere struggle for snow. Cannae see Europeans rushing across tae the Scottish Alps for a week oan the sun kissed slopes ae the Trois Vallées de Glenshee. But nice that there's skiing on offer!

Who needs the Alps eh! They're struggling fir snaw! This is why I'm going hoose hunting in the eastern highlands this spring.