Scotland - Regional Discussion - January

[Stormeh]

Why was the sky a weird colour a wee while ago, just as dusk fell? Loads of people commenting on it on Facebook, from Oban down to Ayr at least.

Yes was like that here as well, can someone explain, was very weird looking indeed.

[A Winter's Tale]

It's fine here. Can some describe what it looked like and how it was weird. This isn't 2012, is it?

[rob4al]

Wish I had taken a photo of it with my phone! Idiot as I had it on me at the time but was just spellbound with the colours. I am no expert but I asume that it has something to do with dust particles or something like that. I am sure that the disaster prediction websites will be having a field day when they hear about it. Even my dog was acting strange though and wanted to get home from his walk!

[A Winter's Tale]

Another FI analysis:

Starts getting colder to our East.

Deep cold tries to say hello except for one area of low pressure tries stopping it. Lot's of cold air to our north, west and east.

-5c uppers for Shetland and lot's of cold anywhere from our West to east - more than 180 degrees.

Still a lot of cold around us. -10C uppers in Shetland. 1048mb in Greenland.

Cold air finds it way to more of Scotland. A nice area of High Pressure near Iceland and weakening PV.

An easterly? Area of low pressure to our SW influencing things. A developing Scandi Hi and Greeni/Arctic Hi. Weaker PV.

Decent area of High Pressure to our north. Cold to our north, west and east and moving south. Easterly.

BREAKTHROUGH! A great easterly for much of Scotland bringing lots of snow. High Pressure to the north of Scandi, Iceland Hi, weaker PV and lots of cold on the same latitude as us and further north.

Perhaps the Best run yet despite being very messy!

POSITIVES ARE:

High Pressure to Our North

The loads of Cold surrounding us

Cold Air always hanging around to the north

Weaker PV

A great Easterly at the End

[Zenarcher]

Same orange sky here as well.

[A Winter's Tale]

Wish I had taken a photo of it with my phone! Idiot as I had it on me at the time but was just spellbound with the colours. I am no expert but I asume that it has something to do with dust particles or something like that. I am sure that the disaster prediction websites will be having a field day when they hear about it. Even my dog was acting strange though and wanted to get home from his walk!

At least it's gone. I've seen a weird pink sky before aswell, usually you get weird skies in Summer nights when it's clear. I assume twitter will be overloading with reports.

[Ruzzi]

It's fine here. Can some describe what it looked like and how it was weird. This isn't 2012, is it?

It was very pink here, when you looked outside it gave everything on the ground a pink tinge, especially white vans etc which to the naked eye turned a light pink colour. It was like an extreme version of the pink sky you sometimes experience during heavy snowfall. It lasted about 20 mins here, and then darkness suddenly fell. I was hazarding a guess that as the sun set on the horizon, it came to a point where it was at the same height as the cloud cover therefore I assumed that it was something to do with sunlight reflecting off the water vapour, or ice crystals in the clouds. Just my hunch though!

Edited January 8, 2012 by ruzzi (snowboy)

[A Winter's Tale]

Just had a look outside and it's just normal. Perhaps it was just a reaction to the end of the 12Z run, a great easterly.

http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/glasgow.html

Sunset was at 16:03

Dusk was at 16:49

[Scottish-Irish Skier]

Aye, some interesting evolutions appearing on the models now with bits of the vortex wobbling off in all sorts of directions in response to high pressure sticking its oar in.

Going to be interesting watching over the next week or so.

[A Winter's Tale]

Aye, some interesting evolutions appearing on the models now with bits of the vortex wobbling off in all sorts of directions in response to high pressure sticking its oar in.

Going to be interesting watching over the next week or so.

It really was quite encouraging. There was a lot of cold around us for the first time this winter, the PV finally looks like declining and high pressure over Scandi and Greenland is looking a bit more possible. Most importantly, at the end we get a good easterly that would bring a lot of snow to us.

BUT, it's likely to change but that's 2/4 runs that have showed Scotland under a decent easterly at the end of the run.

This is a chart that we'd all love to see. Surely we would see a Forth-Clyde Streamer aswell as a whole load of convection up and down the east coast.

I can't wait for the next run. It's starting to look more promising and it sets us up well for February.

[LomondSnowstorm]

Interesting sky indeed. I believe there were lenticular clouds present, certainly it looked that way to my untrained eye. I'll have to get my cloudspotters guide out. That would make sense as a warm front just passed over so there was a stable airmass present. http://www.knmi.nl/data/satrep/archive/KNMI/LOC/LOC_20120108_1500.html

[A Winter's Tale]

An update from Simon Keeling:

[mardatha]

The light was a definite pink just before it got dark - we were standing at the kitchen window talking about it.

[A Winter's Tale]

The light was a definite pink just before it got dark - we were standing at the kitchen window talking about it.

I've heard that here it was a purple/orange and the whole land was reflecting it. Surely a weather related event?

[snowmess]

Sky was a different colour (quite orange-y) here, a wee while ago too. I must admit I thought it was Mossmorran flaring

[mardatha]

Yes everything was definite pink tinge. A wee bit like it sometimes goes before heavy snow.

[Northernlights]

Yes a very colourful sunset after a mostly dry day and all the surface water is draining away slowly. Currently 9.8c with a fresh SW breeze.I sincerely hope the models are right as a bit of dryer colder weather with a bit of frost will improve surface conditions dramatically as the last few weeks have been real heavy going with walking any where really hard work on the farm .Inside cattle would also benefit from some frosty weather and lower humidity air reducing infection rates.

[LomondSnowstorm]

The models aren't exactly playing ball in the short/medium term so I'm going to revisit my initial winter forecast:

January

A very mild southerly flow will gradually give way to drier conditions as high pressure builds in from the southeast. This quieter spell of weather will usher in the change to colder conditions as the high retrogrades to northern Scandinavia. Snowfall will initially be confined to southeast England with dull, drizzly conditions further up the east coast and sunshine for western areas.However, as the high moves northwards and colder uppers move westwards across the continent showers will become more widespread and intense to end the month. Precipitation will be around average in southern and eastern England but well below, for once, across Ireland and Western Scotland. Snowfall amounts will depend on the timing of the SSW but again I see a NW/SE split, this time with the southeast most likely to see above average snowfall. Eastern Scotland, particularly coastal parts, could well endure a spell of intensely dull weather mid-month with a chilly southeasterly flow uppers not quite low enough for a 'sunshine and showers' regime before the real cold arrives.

The specifics were perhaps a bit off - I completely missed the storm and the flow's been more westerly. However, I believe the general idea of high pressure becoming more dominant with some false starts before things shift completely by the end of the month still stands.

Now this is a hideous chart http://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/ecmwf/runs/2012010812/ECH1-192.GIF?08-0

If we set ourselves up to expect that for the start of next week then I think we can avoid any TOORPing because realistically that's about as bad as it can get.

[LomondSnowstorm]

This http://91.121.94.83/modeles/gfs/archives/gfs-2009120412-0-204.png?12 became this http://176.31.229.228/modeles/reana/2009/archives-2009-12-13-0-0.png

Four days later though we ended up here http://176.31.229.228/modeles/reana/2009/archives-2009-12-17-0-0.png

False starts are very common and it looks like we may have hit another one here. I doubt it will be a complete false dawn though because, unlike with other phantom beasts, this one isn't simply based on a few good charts in FI. Just have to hope the Eliassen Palm flux gets its act together...

[Hairy Celt]

Flamin' 'eck. 9C and a bright moon over the firth. Time for a dip?

[blitzen]

Quite a few cases of 'pistols at dawn' on the MT at the moment I see! What a change from the 'love in' yesterday with all the great model runs! It went wrong first of all this morning with Nick Sussex's post re the UKMO not playing ball, then the Strat thread hiccup, then the 06z, the 12z and finally the ECM. Probably another day or so before they start to look promising again and dangle the carrot which we will no doubt blindly follow, hoping that they will throw us at least one tasty morsel before winter's end!

[A Winter's Tale]

Quite a few cases of 'pistols at dawn' on the MT at the moment I see! What a change from the 'love in' yesterday with all the great model runs! It went wrong first of all this morning with Nick Sussex's post re the UKMO not playing ball, then the Strat thread hiccup, then the 06z, the 12z and finally the ECM. Probably another day or so before they start to look promising again and dangle the carrot which we will no doubt blindly follow, hoping that they will throw us at least one tasty morsel before winter's end!

Here's a nice chart from the GFS 12z run.

Now desptite it's 384 hrs away, we are in a far better position than we've been all winter and it's great to see a lot of cold air in Europe trying to reach Scotland with a large blanket of cold to our west, north and east. Most importantly we've got height rises in decent areas and a lovely chart to look at. Memories of November 2010.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Paul

[blitzen]

Flamin' 'eck. 9C and a bright moon over the firth. Time for a dip?

We got 9.2c! !

[Cheggers]

Was 10C just passed Dunkeld on the car!!! Now hame and it's 8C. Sky comments very weired, my kids mentioned it as we were passing Brauer. Got a few snaps that will post shortly, which may show sky, not sure.

PS....

the sky it's to do with "scattering" and the colours of the spectrum passing through the clouds . . . . . it can turn lots of colours but mostly red, orange, purple and yellow . . . . . for it to go purple/pinky the 'sky' was probably filled with water, pollution and dust . . . . . in general the sky looks blue because of the amount of oxygen/nitrogen in the atmosphere scattering all the blue rays

Edited January 8, 2012 by Cheggers

[blitzen]

We got 9.2c! !

CSS, I love your enthusiasm, but I think I'll join HC for a swim. Come on in, the water's lovely!