Scottish Cold Spell Discussion 16

[JRMcLeod]

Thats what I was saying a couple of posts back.

Good Call,

Northsound 1 mentioned that the roads up near peterhead were only passible with extreme care due to heavy snow!!!

[Sunny Leith]

Thats what I was saying a couple of posts back.

Cloud movement looks as northish-southish as it has been this past few days... and looks like only the sticky-out bits of NE Scotland and SE Scotland will cop them (again). Don't see annything from the radar to indicate its orienting ENE and therefore more favourable for east-central.

On the other hand if that whole stream was to get shunted westwards then maybe we'd be in with a shout. Is this part of the metoffice band/feature that they indicate moving westwards later ?

Must admit, sceptical of any more general activity in the east... best guide I feel is the past few days and therefore the NE tip/SE tip/Borders would be the most likely recipients.

[Scottish-Irish Skier]

Morning all.

Just returned from a futile attempt to get to work.

The piste outside my house was very icy and I got stuck in a big pile of snow at the junction with the main A68 piste, which was compacted snow with no black to be seen.

Conditions no good for car skiing, so slid around and went home.

Apparently there is too much snow and it is too cold (-15 in the leader valley) for the salt to help, so they have just ploughed it and await a thaw.

[Snooz]

morning all, positively basking here compared to most -1c

got some more snow going on from time to time as well, the blobs are pretty much dying just as they hit us now

already done an hours clearing today, off to the village to help the communal effort now.. before the freeze

[Sunny Leith]

Height as you say has been the key PB. Still a very secure layer city-wide, especially on the south-west/higher parts, a top up at the in-laws 2 nights ago sees them with 8 inches of the white stuff in the back garden up at Liberton. Colinton, Craighlockhart, Juniper Green, Currie, Balerno ... as deep in the white stuff as I've seen for years. Even at Leith though we have a decent few inches on Calton Hill .... but we're in a more fragile part of town if the easterly drags in warmer air to the shore level.

We might pick up some showery stuff out of the weekend, like you not expecting much if anything really... Worst case would be HP centred on Northern Scotland, giving us onshore winds from a local sea fetch, cloudier nights and days ... we'd get warmer here and mush up a little in Leith/North East Embra. Anyway, time will tell....

I think the high pressure will spoil the fun at the weekend for scotland with all the snow action further south, Edinburgh will have its snow sheild on as always cant beleive just 20-30 miles south of us they have had 50cm yet Edinburgh has only had about 2-3inches max out of a 3week cold spell. We have a foot of snow here in Penicuik but thats fallen and not thawed due to alltitude over the cold spell.

Edited January 7, 2010 by by-tor

[Snowplough33]

Cloud movement looks as northish-southish as it has been this past few days... and looks like only the sticky-out bits of NE Scotland and SE Scotland will cop them (again). Don't see annything from the radar to indicate its orienting ENE and therefore more favourable for east-central.

On the other hand if that whole stream was to get shunted westwards then maybe we'd be in with a shout. Is this part of the metoffice band/feature that they indicate moving westwards later ?

Must admit, sceptical of any more general activity in the east... best guide I feel is the past few days and therefore the NE tip/SE tip/Borders would be the most likely recipients.

B_T, you will have a better idea than I do. Run the GSF wind / stream from now till say midnight, three in the morning. You can see the streams push across the N sea from east to west, some kind of feed from the Low down south. As it moves east, there is a very clear boundary between NNW wind and E wind. To me this boundary must be the band of showers to our east, agreeing with MO fax that shows minor feature across the east by midnight. You can see this windshift fade as it makes landfall in the early hours, this is the feature disolving I assume. I think some potential from this. CMIIW please, just my thoughts,

Edited January 7, 2010 by Snowplough33

[bingobob777]

Left Glasgow at 07.30 car was reading -9.5c, which seems to tie in with what others had. Arrived in Bathgate at 08.30 to -14c.

Bathgate also has at least a foot of snow lying in areas untouched.

[Snowplough33]

After a few dodgy runs on the GSF charts they are getting better run by run. On the latest run , the blocking never really lets go. A couple of slight pushes from the Atlantic but mainly cold or coldish from east of south east, with a couple of pools of deep cold covering UK. The snow may be on the ground for a stagering length of time!!

[snowy owl]

Freezing here this morning still around -5 brrr.

Schools in East Lothian shut again today. Looks like they may open tomorrow if we don't get any more weather!!! whatever thats meant to mean.

Although the possibility of some snow tonight. Thats a surprise as i thought we'd seen the last of it until at least next week.

[Joe Bloggs]

Morning all.

I'm heading back to Edinburgh on Sunday, and it looks as though there will be a southeasterly flow early next week.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/Rukm1441.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/Recm1681.gif

Does anyone want to hazard a guess what sort of precipitation this would give? Will Edinburgh be losing any of its lovely snow?

[Gilly]

Morning all.

I'm heading back to Edinburgh on Sunday, and it looks as though there will be a southeasterly flow early next week.

http://www.wetterzen...cs/Rukm1441.gif

http://www.wetterzen...cs/Recm1681.gif

Does anyone want to hazard a guess what sort of precipitation this would give? Will Edinburgh be losing any of its lovely snow?

That High looks as if it will drift westwards after the weekend. Does this mean we will be back in a northerly flow?

[Sunny Leith]

Depends what part of town you're in. Might lose some on the low-lying coastal parts of town around the weekend (maybe not). I think south and west though from central Edinburgh/Bruntsfield/Meadows area it all looks very secure - going to take a lot of warming to clear that and I don't see it coming.

If we get into a south-easterly, then traditionally thats not bad for us. Renders us effectively inland with East Lothian/Berwickshire, the Lammermuirs and the Cheviots ... providing shelter from too much maritime influence. So whilst the easterly down the estuary might briefly (ahem) "warm"/mush things up for a day or two at the weekend.... a subsequent south-easterly restores things nicely. Sometimes we even get light snow/graupal out of it (mm's rather than cm's). We'd lose the current night-time extremes but even then its hard to see anything other than a daily average around the 0c mark more or less ... maybe daytime highs at 2c or so (not seen that for about 5 days now...)

To be honest we've had a couple of freeze/thaw cycles even in Leith this past 2-3 weeks and still held on to visible surface frozen snow in gardens and parks throughout. Not expecting that to change any time soon, such is the embedded cold at ground level.

Morning all.

I'm heading back to Edinburgh on Sunday, and it looks as though there will be a southeasterly flow early next week.

http://www.wetterzen...cs/Rukm1441.gif

http://www.wetterzen...cs/Recm1681.gif

Does anyone want to hazard a guess what sort of precipitation this would give? Will Edinburgh be losing any of its lovely snow?

Edited January 7, 2010 by by-tor

[Guest]

Still -8C!!!

BoyCatch slipped on the way to school and got soaked. Wee lamb was wet in that cold this morning for the 5 minutes it took us to get home

[Argyllcraig]

morning everyone. quite like the current gfs run this morning, suggests the blocking may well continue for a few more weeks but also gives a possibility of atlantic systems pushing against it and being rebuffed over the west..... hopefully we may get our chance of snow from it.

As far as infastructure goes, the cold is really taking its toll on our trains now... was back in at work after a few days yesterday and we have had to cancel loads of routes around glasgow just so we can double all our trains up into 6 carriages as the cold means that the air systems that run the brakes, doors, heating etc are failing on a regular basis. Add to that many stations are literally falling apart now with platforms cracking apart.

another couple of days couple be very interesting never mind another couple of weeks.

[Guest]

morning everyone. quite like the current gfs run this morning, suggests the blocking may well continue for a few more weeks but also gives a possibility of atlantic systems pushing against it and being rebuffed over the west..... hopefully we may get our chance of snow from it.

As far as infastructure goes, the cold is really taking its toll on our trains now... was back in at work after a few days yesterday and we have had to cancel loads of routes around glasgow just so we can double all our trains up into 6 carriages as the cold means that the air systems that run the brakes, doors, heating etc are failing on a regular basis. Add to that many stations are literally falling apart now with platforms cracking apart.

another couple of days couple be very interesting never mind another couple of weeks.

The exposed roads and pavements are in a right state round here, I hadn't even thought about station platforms, but they must be a mess too. It's going to be a costly cold spell.

[Argyllcraig]

ive seen some platforms where the copings that run along the edges of platforms have fallen into the line on approach to some stations, u can even hear the old wooden sleepers creaking and cracking when you drive over them... all very reassuring.

[sandstorm2]

Still -8 but feels tropical compared to the bonechilling -12 when I went to work at 0445 this morning.

SS"

[Cheggers]

Metoffice defending itself

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/8443687.stm

-11 when I left home at 8:30 this morning

Edited January 7, 2010 by Cheggers

[bingobob777]

morning everyone. quite like the current gfs run this morning, suggests the blocking may well continue for a few more weeks but also gives a possibility of atlantic systems pushing against it and being rebuffed over the west..... hopefully we may get our chance of snow from it.

As far as infastructure goes, the cold is really taking its toll on our trains now... was back in at work after a few days yesterday and we have had to cancel loads of routes around glasgow just so we can double all our trains up into 6 carriages as the cold means that the air systems that run the brakes, doors, heating etc are failing on a regular basis. Add to that many stations are literally falling apart now with platforms cracking apart.

another couple of days couple be very interesting never mind another couple of weeks.

What do you do Argyll? Scotrail? Work for Network Rail myself. Points failures causing mayhem at the moment, an average January day should have 25,000 delay minutes nationwide, yesterday was 125,000 minutes.

This could spell is certainly damaging one thing, my bonus!!!

[Zenarcher]

Still have snow here and its snowing again. Last night was the coldest night yet.

[igloo]

Still have snow here and its snowing again. Last night was the coldest night yet.

not been any snow here for the past 2-3 days but all ready have some 12inch lying for near 3 weeks last night min was -12.4c and as i speak its still -10.2 i think tonight will be even colder

[Joe Bloggs]

Depends what part of town you're in. Might lose some on the low-lying coastal parts of town around the weekend (maybe not). I think south and west though from central Edinburgh/Bruntsfield/Meadows area it all looks very secure - going to take a lot of warming to clear that and I don't see it coming.

If we get into a south-easterly, then traditionally thats not bad for us. Renders us effectively inland with East Lothian/Berwickshire, the Lammermuirs and the Cheviots ... providing shelter from too much maritime influence. So whilst the easterly down the estuary might briefly (ahem) "warm"/mush things up for a day or two at the weekend.... a subsequent south-easterly restores things nicely. Sometimes we even get light snow/graupal out of it (mm's rather than cm's). We'd lose the current night-time extremes but even then its hard to see anything other than a daily average around the 0c mark more or less ... maybe daytime highs at 2c or so (not seen that for about 5 days now...)

To be honest we've had a couple of freeze/thaw cycles even in Leith this past 2-3 weeks and still held on to visible surface frozen snow in gardens and parks throughout. Not expecting that to change any time soon, such is the embedded cold at ground level.

What a great reply, cheers.

[sammie]

Depends what part of town you're in. Might lose some on the low-lying coastal parts of town around the weekend (maybe not). I think south and west though from central Edinburgh/Bruntsfield/Meadows area it all looks very secure - going to take a lot of warming to clear that and I don't see it coming.

Great its gonna be awesome trying to walk from the meadows to kings buildings next week! Buggeration!

[Argyllcraig]

Hi bingobob,

i drive for scotrail on the old SPT routes across the greater glasgow area.. things are certainly groaning out there, ive never seen so many staff just sitting around with nowhere to go.

Should see the icicles in some of the tunnels!

Craig.

[Allyw12]

Morin all

Its was -9.5 when I got up the morin, its now -6.3 don't think it will get much higher today. Looks like another cold night ahead .