Scottish-Irish Skier

Turn on air re-circulation and air con. Open the windaes a wee bit. Air con will dry / heat the air while recirculating this rather than bringing in moist air from outside. The windows open will let moisture out somewhat, allowing the inside of the car to dry quicker. The visors down too as a baffle should help too for the reasons explained. We have a frost blanket for the windscreen, which saves a good 10 mins in the morning!

Peachy ECM. Polar vortex is all ower the place. Guid stuff. There be snaw a cummin!

'exactly where it will snow and when' Huv tae resist! Guid tae see NW being suggested though! Liking 'Troll fae Trondheim'.

Wee bit ae sunshine here the day. What's nice about this weather is that it's easier tae heat the hoose. Cold, dry(ish) and calm is way better than slightly warmer, wet and windy. The latter of course sucks the heat from the house. Relentless cold rain is the very worst for 'rain chill' effects. So without adjusting the heating, the hoose is a wee bit warmer this past week, even with frosts!

Aye, the biggest problem in recent years is when snow actually has come, it's come in massive beasterly dumps that blocked the access road with continuous drifting so nobody could get up. The old chairlift was highly problematic in the wind because it was a rickety rust bucket that swung wildly in a gentle breeze. A modern gondola from Glenmore, aka how you access Nevis and Glencoe, would have been so much more sensible, and these days such lifts are much less susceptible to winds. The wind levels that stop them are the kind of weather that would blow you over anyway, so you'd not be skiing in the first place. @Hairy Celt Totally take your point about diggers churning up the hillside BTW. Skiing is a great way to get people outdoors, exercising and enjoying the mountains, but, like everything, balance is needed. The story of the funicular is a sorry tale and it's a total mess right now, but then I guess they are going hell for leather to try and have it open for at least part of the season. It's opened a big financial hole that needs filled. Hopefully this time it will work as intended and they re-instate the topsoil etc as best they can. I think this year with everyone's belts tightening, those who love skiing will be hoping for some home snow as holidays to the alps will be reserved for the likes of Sunak and family. But snaw means turning the heating on... Guess I can start burning the furniture!

Totally agree. Also, ski areas cover a teeny tiny part of the highlands. The most destructive force is rich people having the heather burnt to bravely shoot wee birds from next to a warm land rover loaded with cucumber sandwiches, after said birds have been guided towards them in their hundreds by lowly serfs marching up to their waists in freezing peat bogs for a pittance. Then we have overgrazing by that other favourite absentee landlords rifle target, the red deer. Bring back wolves! Also the sheep, put onto the land to replace those who used to live in the ruined croft remains scattered throughout, forcibly cleared in their thousands to 'send back letters from America'. But look what happens when that's undone! Anyone for some glade skiing? At least before climate change puts paid to it! Anyhoo, happy St. Andrew's day folks. A fitting day for me to check in for the winter now a greenie high has reared it's pretty head! Finally proper frosty. Not much to report from fort SS of late, other than it ended up a good mushroom season when the rain finally came! 700g penny bun. Divine!

Feel like driving over there to test the new all seasons. Cannae believe it's late February and I've still not had a chance to drive on decent snaw. Still. It's trying its best oot and starting to lie again. Might yet get something approximating a covering!

Snaw oan again here, but everything a bit wet looking, so needs tae put mair effort in if it's gonnae stick. Fair blawin a hoolie tae.

Couple of cm's here, now sodden and dripping away. Still, at least you can work out what season it's supposed to be. Maybe some action this afternoon. Glad to say amber Dudley didn't bring down any more trees, but that's mainly due to there being none left standing after Arwen etc. As for the red warning in England - jeez. Scary stuff.

Aye, thank heavens for our open fire combined with a high level of insulation (we gutted our 1860's cottage and insulated it when we did it up - later extension is even more insulation maxed). We have off-peak storage heating powered by crap Scottish weather, which works a treat with the insulation (forget it if without), and so is pretty green. But if the power does down we have at most 24 hours of warmth without the fire. The latter is a lifesaver. When we lost power with Arwen, the house was still 17C outside the living room a day later, and very cosy within it. Like you say, particularly in the sticks, relying solely on electric power, including for cars is quite dangerous. Possibly life-threatening. While I expect to have one of our two cars fully electric in the next few years, I want a petrol/diesel kept in place, at least a hybrid. That or an alternative liquid powered vehicle where I can keep a jerry can in the shed if needed. Electricity has limits. Petrol/diesel have about 50x the energy density of the best Li batteries, so for emergency fuel, they remain no brainers. In the case of emergency vehicles dealing with a natural disaster, particularly in remote areas, this could not be clearer.

With my neighbour and I on the job, this (where we often walk the dogs): Is now this: Plus increasing piles of this in the gairden! The farm around us has a remote landlord in the south of England. The farm manager is a local and a nice guy. We can help ourselves to fallen stuff, especially if it clears field access tracks! But aye, I'm tired of this winter. Totally trashed the things around here. It's interesting what folk say about the drought and roots, because bawbag and other similar storms never did this level of damage.

Windy here, but nothing like the other night. Only good thing about the weather is this:

And no shortage of wood by the sounds of it! I trust you have a chainsaw? Maybe start a firewood business on the side! That is a total bummer about your porch. We are surrounded by trees, but all at a safe distance (only one that could maybe reach us if it went over is to the east, where the winds are never strong). So they shelter us, but don't present a danger. The local forests here have taken a pounding again. The farm owner had areas of pine plantation (normally surrounded by an edge of beech, ash, birch, oak etc) thinned a couple of years back. That left these really tall thin pines with a huge 'sail' at the top, with no other trees close by to support them. Without time to take advantage of their newfound space to spread out roots further, they've toppled in huge swaths. The unusual northerly armen caught them from a weak side. A lot of those that survived are now down. Total mess. Still, maybe 60% still standing. That's better than out on the moors towards Westruther and Duns. There you have pine and spruce plantations that look like a nuclear blast levelled them. Those not toppled are snapped like twigs. Only good thing is an endless supply of firewood.

Pants

One of those days where I'm glad I'm not a trampoline! Gonnae try and walk the dugs, steering well clear ae the wuids!

Light, slightly pishy snaw here. Covering of about 0.75 mm.

Meto have me a yellae warnin fir loadsae pish the morn. I've worked oot that nae warnin means snaw. Yellae means likely jist pish, and amber defo jist pish. Red = pish wi the wuids trashed again.

Through the back of the old wardrobe with the fur coats this morning. WhatsApp Video 2022-01-04 at 11.02.45.mp4 Ellan Wood, Carrbridge. Maybe 7 cm here of fresh fluffy powder here. So light, my Dad and I cleared the path and car with a leaf blower!

Folk's drive this morning. Driving back from Carrbridge to fort SS could be fun (and very pretty) at times! #wintertyreday

Sitting here in Carrbridge awaiting the snaw. Already had a few wee flurries. Meamwhile a pic and a vid of the upper Dulnain valley and Monadhliath Mountains with a wee dusting from behind the croft at Lethendrychule (57.26565470388197, -3.8389687242673842). afore the snaw.mp4

#whitechristmas

Well, supposedly I'll get some snaw turnin tae pish on boxing day. I expect just pish turnin tae mair pish. Where did it all go wrong? Ach well, it's still early days in the winter! Merry Christmas to all. Hope Santa's guid tae ye!

There's hope yet!

TBH, this isnae a bad forecast for crimbo. Someone up in the hills will be getting a white christmas it seems. Knowing my luck, 5 mins up the road to the top of the hill they'll all be sledging and stuff, chucking snawbaws down at me and laughing! Good news for skiing, omicron aside. With a pretty substantial greenie high developing to our north, there's lots of potential going forward. --- Wednesday: A dry start with some early brightness, but cloud will soon thicken with rain and hill snow spreading north. Maximum temperature 7 °C. Outlook for Thursday to Saturday: Rain and hill snow much of Thursday and Friday, perhaps early Saturday. Turning drier but colder from the north on Saturday. East or southeast winds, strengthening on Saturday. Updated: 04:00 (UTC) on Tue 21 Dec 2021 Saturday 25 Dec - Monday 3 Jan This period remains somewhat uncertain in detail, but generally sees a split between colder air to the north and milder air to the south. Along the boundary, rain, with a risk of snow, predominantly across higher ground. To the south of this, mild, unsettled weather, with rain and occasional strong winds. To the north more settled conditions; brighter spells, with some wintry showers, mainly in the north and northeast, and feeling very cold in brisk northeasterly winds. Towards the end of the period potentially an interlude of more widely settled conditions, bringing colder, frosty weather. Maybe a risk of rain and snow with stronger winds arriving from the southwest later. Becoming colder than average heading into January with any unsettled, milder spells most likely for the west and south.

Wee bro captured this earlier ???????: Loving the 12z ECM. #greeniehigh EDIT. Ensembles looking promising...