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Snow Patches On Scottish Mountains


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Well summarised, spindrift.

Your reasons for persistence of the snow are all accurate, and they are all very important. I'm visiting the snow at Aonach Beag (not Aonach Mor) this weekend, and will report back.

For those who are interested I did an interview that appeared on the Grand Tours of Scotland programme on Friday. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n8v0c

My section is at 6:40. Ignore the awful 'climate expert' comment (I am most certainly not)!

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Posted
  • Location: Lincolnshire - 15m asl
  • Weather Preferences: Frost and snow. A quiet autumn day is also good.
  • Location: Lincolnshire - 15m asl

Another update for all you chionophiles!

Saturday saw myself and Mark Atkinson take to the hills of the Cairngorms in search of the two most permanent snow patches in the British Isles. Garbh Choire Mor of Braeriach, as many of you will know by now, holds two patches named Sphinx and Pinnacles.

I am told that the most permanent patch is in one of the northern gullies on the Ben itself, and not on Braeriach...

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Posted
  • Location: Lincolnshire - 15m asl
  • Weather Preferences: Frost and snow. A quiet autumn day is also good.
  • Location: Lincolnshire - 15m asl

No, that's incorrect. The most permanent patch is on Braeriach. It's called Sphinx, and is linked to in my earlier post. Your source is mistaken I'm afraid. I'd be interested to know where he/she came by this info.

Scottish snow patches were his specialist subject at university. I'll put your point to him tomorrow and see how he comes back :-)
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Posted
  • Location: Motherwell, Lanarkshire
  • Location: Motherwell, Lanarkshire

I'm visiting the snow at Aonach Beag (not Aonach Mor) this weekend, and will report back.

I always get these two confused, probably because I always forget that, despite its name, Aonach Beag is actually higher of the two! (for the uninitiated, Aonach Mor means big ridge in Gaelic, and Aonach Beag means small ridge).

I look forward to your report on how the patches in the west are faring.

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With an impending cold snap coming up, we're hopeful that the existing old snow still to be found on the three Scottish mountains (Braeriach, Aonach Beag, Ben Nevis) will be well covered by this time next week.

To that end I made a special trip up onto Ben Nevis and Aonach Beag on Sunday to photograph and measure the snow remaining from last winter. Thankfully both patches are in good nick.

First of all I visited Ben Nevis's Observatory Gully. I found a 26 metre long patch that still had over a metre of depth. post-7268-0-38361600-1350933792_thumb.jp

The snow was pretty solid, but was melting from the bottom slightly. It had a nice covering of about 2 inches of new stuff on it, and I'm almost certain it'll survive until the new season's snow.

View of the patch from below.

post-7268-0-28109900-1350933805_thumb.jp

From there it was the arduous slog over to Aonach Beag. A roller coaster of a walk, with extremely difficult terrain to negotiate. Fortunately the patch over there was reward enough, and was 21.4 metres long and about 1 metre deep. A full suite of pictures is here.

If anyone wants to keep up to date then I've joined the Twitter revolution! @theiaincameron You'll hear it there first, folks!

Edited by firefly
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Posted
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District. 290 mts a.s.l.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything extreme
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District. 290 mts a.s.l.

Excellent report as usual, Firefly. Looking at the photo's of the snow patches from a distance it does make you realise how vulnerable they are to a very mild and wet spell in late autumn, hopefully there'll be no such thing this autumn.

The current model output certainly looks very favourable for the survival of the remaining patches.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks

Many thanks for your and others efforts to keep us updated, I'm sure it is one of the more popular threads and so free from some of the unpleasantness that we sometimes get on other threads. Have a wee dram and prepare for the winter!

Are you a walker and skier?

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Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield

Love this thread always keep an eye too see if it's been updated.

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Posted
  • Location: Crystal Palace, South London (300 feet asl)
  • Location: Crystal Palace, South London (300 feet asl)

And from the other perspective - of someone who really likes following the vicissitudes of our weather, but is hardly an expert - this is one of my favourite threads too. Many thanks for all the hard work and sharing your discoveries.

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Posted
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District. 290 mts a.s.l.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything extreme
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District. 290 mts a.s.l.

Many thanks for your and others efforts to keep us updated, I'm sure it is one of the more popular threads and so free from some of the unpleasantness that we sometimes get on other threads. Have a wee dram and prepare for the winter!

Are you a walker and skier?

Yes, I'll second that from John, one of my favourite threads too.

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Posted
  • Location: @scotlandwx
  • Weather Preferences: Crystal Clear High Pressure & Blue Skies
  • Location: @scotlandwx

Thanks Firefly - great images and a superb thread.

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  • 4 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Napton on the Hill Warwickshire 500ft
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and heatwave
  • Location: Napton on the Hill Warwickshire 500ft

Well ladies and gentlemen, that concludes 2012's snow-patch season for the Highlands of Scotland.

In summary, winter 2011-12 was a bit of a hit and miss affair. Dare I say it, a typical Scottish winter? Big falls of snow from the west, north-west and south-west in December and January filled the longest-lying hollows. February and March were dreadful, with both returning above average temperatures and little snow. At the end of March the outlook was bleak, but the very cold and snowy April (and first three weeks of May) returned hope. The cool summer undoubtedly assisted with the longevity of the snow, as did the frequent freeze/thaw cycles in early winter.

Until 2013...

Apologies re bumping thread but interested to see firefly/peoples thoughts for the coming season. With obvioulsy a much better February and March then last year and probably April does the outlook good ?

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  • 2 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District South Pennines Middleton & Smerrill Tops 305m (1001ft) asl.
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District South Pennines Middleton & Smerrill Tops 305m (1001ft) asl.
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Posted
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet

Are we looking good to the end of June.

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Posted
  • Location: Motherwell, Lanarkshire
  • Location: Motherwell, Lanarkshire

The snowpatch situation does look quite healthy at the moment. Firefly and other volunteers will (I think!) be doing the usual survey around about the 1st of July and it looks highly likely that the patches will be greater in number and size than has been typical for the time of year over the last 20 years or so. The relative lack of big westerly/SWly storms to blow the snow into the most long-lasting N/E facing patch sites might still ultimately be a factor in the number of survivals until next winter but, up to this point, the cold spring appears to have more than compensated for this. Some of the long-lasting sites will have been gaining snow into late spring when often melting will have been well under way. The coldness of the spring is illustrated by the fact that the temperature at the summit of Cairn Gorm (1245m/4084ft) failed to rise above freezing point for the entire month of March.

A detailed discussion thread can be found at Winter Highland website (a quick scan of this should be enough to give a flavour of how things stand):

http://www.winterhighland.info/forum/read.php?2,154638

Edited by spindrift1980
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Glad to see this thread back off the ground...

As spindrift has intimated, the coming season looks promising. As I write there is more snow in general on the hills than at any time in late June since 2008. There are several reasons for this. First of all, the early season of December and Januray was characterised by heavy falls from the south west and west. This fills the NE facing hollows. Frequent freeze/thaw cycles help consolidate the pack, giving it a flak jacket for summer. Secondly, the spring was very cool. One can normally expect to see snow disappear fairly quickly in April if the right conditions prevail. However, 2013 March, April and May all were cooler than average, and the pack remained in good nick.

It's of course early days, but I'll keep this updated as and when. For a more immediate updating too,, check me out in Twitter @theiaincameron. There are a few folk on there following me. Spread the word!

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  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District South Pennines Middleton & Smerrill Tops 305m (1001ft) asl.
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District South Pennines Middleton & Smerrill Tops 305m (1001ft) asl.

Posted Image

 

Posted Image

Posted Image

 

Snow patches remaining on and around Braeriach today.http://glencoemountaineer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/crystal-ridge.html

Edited by Polar Maritime
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Posted
  • Location: Yorkshire Puddin' aka Kirkham, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom
  • Weather Preferences: cold winters, cold springs, cold summers and cold autumns
  • Location: Yorkshire Puddin' aka Kirkham, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom

I will be very surprised if there are any patches left by the end of this month.

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Posted
  • Location: Paris suburbs
  • Location: Paris suburbs

I will be very surprised if there are any patches left by the end of this month.

What makes you think that? There's absolutely no chance at all of a melt out before the end of August, never mind in just over a week's time.
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Posted
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet
I will be very surprised if there are any patches left by the end of this month.[/quote

I could be wrong but I think its warm rain and high minima which is bad for the patches, this type of sun for days probably is not the best but I imagine its still chilly in the valleys at night.

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Posted
  • Location: Ribble Valley
  • Location: Ribble Valley
I will be very surprised if there are any patches left by the end of this month.[/quote

I could be wrong but I think its warm rain and high minima which is bad for the patches, this type of sun for days probably is not the best but I imagine its still chilly in the valleys at night.

Indeed it is, in fact I would say that if we have a dryish August then the chances of snow patches surviving into the latter part of Autumn remain quite good, the caveat being that September isn't a washout.

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Posted
  • Location: St.Albans, Hertfordshire
  • Location: St.Albans, Hertfordshire

It always interests me how parts of scotland can be hitting 30oC and yet some of the valleys still having lying snow, just seems mad, sitting here down south in temperatures of 34oC today also makes it just feel unbelievable that anywhere in the UK can have snow still... of course that's just my ignorance aha 

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