Scottish Mountain Winter Snowfall

[kippure]

With all the differant winter forecasts , its safe to say that it will snow in scotland again this winter. Autumns over and good ridance to it. One sleety fall during the night for me..whoopi...

All i ask is that the snow gods make a harder attempt this winter and deliver the snow goods to us all.....

[frozen_north]

The only bad thing is that the recent thaw has melted most of the snow. Heres to plenty of snow this winter.

[The PIT]

A few hours early it's still Autumn. Should get some more Snow later on next week I reckon.

[kippure]

A few hours early it's still Autumn. Should get some more Snow later on next week I reckon.

2 and a half hours to winter approx

[Stratos Ferric]

That all depends if you follow the meteorological winter of 1st Dec to 28th Feb, if you follow the real astrological winter from winter solstice to the spring equinox, then it's still 3 weeks to winter...but that's another thread for another day (or last year).

..or whether you choose, which might be the most appropriate given the implicit point of the thread (snow in the mountain), to define it according to the actual weather. It's barely autumnal at present, let alone wintry.

[kippure]

Just a dusting

[frozen_north]

It may be just a dusting but that is at about 2000ft. The main snow line in the Highlands right now is about 3000ft from my own observations today. Ben Lomond looks good with snow on it.

[Hywel]

Snowline was down to just below 900m in North Wales yesterday morning. A few inches on the tops of the Carneddau (Carnedd Llewellyn 1064m)

Edited December 10, 2006 by Hywel

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

Monday 11th December. The Funicular and Ptarmigan tow will open for snowsports weather permitting.

Not looking too good for opening tomorrow:

[skifreak]

Fresh snow coming in during the showers, and -5[c] at the top of CairnGorm this morning. Despite the savage thaw conditions later Sunday, a base remains in the Top Basin runs and its the wind preventing anything other than the funicular running at present, currently 75mph at the tunnel mouth of the funicular.

BTW that has the windchill nudging into the sub -30c 'Exposed Flesh Freezes' category!

[skifreak]

New Webcam Alert! :lol:

Live Image: http://glencoerouter.dyndns.org/netcam.jpg

There is a semi-streaming cam feed which updates every couple of seconds also available. Please visit the Glencoe website at http://www.glencoemountain.com for it.

[Hiya]

thats a good one with that drift fence close in to get an idea of the depth.

[kippure]

Great Stuff

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

thats a good one with that drift fence close in to get an idea of the depth.

The webcam seems to have been moved now.

Says the temp is 8.5 at 2200ft, with those temps and the rain it looks like a rapid thaw for the highland snow.

Edited December 13, 2006 by multi cellular thunderstorm

[skifreak]

Webcam is in the same place but zoomed right in on the centre of the image above. On the zoomed in image the two Top lifts can be seen going off the top of the image (centre), they follow a natural snowholding gully, and to the right is the foot of the Main Basin.

Stormforce winds will have helped drive snow into these areas to a depth well beyond that which actually fell. Open areas would have been largely scoured clear with just a cosmetic covering if that, which is now vanishing in the thaw. Torrential Rain and +9c at 2000ft equates to rapid thaw conditions, but there's already a consolidated base in those gullies under the recent accumulations.

It may be hard to believe but these violent storm cycles are as much friend as they are foe, this is the point where those that can get there heads around Scottish skiing sit and wait, hoping that the cycle completes itself quickly enough so that when the colder temps return, overall there has been a net gain in the consolidated base through the cycle. 3/4 of the snow that fell may go, but it's the extra 1/4 thats survived and added to the base that matters.

[shuggee]

Don't forget all webcam links and live shots are pinned in this section here:

http://www.netweather.tv/forum/index.php?showforum=38

If you find more - feel free to add the link/image.

[Ross B]

Depending on the forecast i'll be up in the mountains on saturday. Hopefuly a lot of snow will fall before then but i doubt it will be that much.

[skifreak]

What remains after the monsoon - looking up Aonach Mor this morning where Goose Gully retains a good base and the upper Goose could be a goer for the weekend - snowshowers expected today and tomorrow, decision will depend on how the forecast pans out - due to re-open full time next weekend.

[skifreak]

CairnGorm Mountain finally has wind speeds low enough to stand up in, and snowsports are underway again in the Top Basin today.

[kippure]

The new veiw from cairngorm

About time

[skifreak]

Alrighty, third weekend of the season for CairnGorm Mountain and they are now open daily for snowsports weather permitting. View from the top of the Ptarmigan Tow late morning on Sunday 17th Dec:

More: http://www.winterhighland.info/2006/pix/pi....php?pix_id=266

[frozen_north]

Too bad some of that snow is going to melt over this coming week. Hopefully there will still be some left and we will get some NW to bring some more snow. The worst scenario for the Scottish Ski industry would be this mild spell followed by raging SW.

It looks good up there. I'm just amazed at how the Cairngorm has had better skiing than most of Europe.

[skifreak]

Had a butchers up CairnGorm Mountain on Saturday afternoon, with a firm base even with the limited snow fortunately didn't butcher my skis! Had the good skis out on each of the five days I've had this season on the 'Gorm and not a scratch as yet. Only limited terrain in the Top Basin on Saturday, the Funicular wasn't doing mid-station stops as the Cas Gunbarrel was deemed to icy to be safe for skiing back to the mid-station (rumour has it a member of ski patrol wiped out and landed in the Cas burn earlier in the day!! ).

More photos and a report at: http://www.winterhighland.info/2006/pix/pi....php?pix_id=268

Runs are narrow and the Ptarmigan Bowl only has a narrow track of snow that's been bashed out across the grass, but it sure wasn't thawing on Saturday, despite the temperature inversion and a reported temperature of +8[c] the snow and ground remained bomb proof, baffled quite a lot of the tourists as it didnt even feel cold!

[frozen_north]

I'm sure it was colder down in the valley than at the top of the mountain. No wonder it baffled them.

[Peter Henderson]

Too bad some of that snow is going to melt over this coming week

Given the recent weather conditions (i.e. the last month or so) I'm actually surprised there's any snow at all in the Scottish ski resorts. Still, judging from the photos there seems to be enough for at least some skiing. Anyway, here's the synoptic chart for Hogmanay:

http://85.214.49.20/wz/pics/brack4a.gif

I'm not sure if this set-up will give any additional snowfall, but it looks pretty mild, wet , and windy to me and, I'd guess from looking at that chart, some thawing of lying snow as well. Hardly ideal skiing weather.

Edited December 26, 2006 by Peter Henderson