Scotland - Weather Chat

[Cheggers]

Glorious cold clear crisp day here, currently -2c after a high of 1C and crystal clear skies. Roads and pavements are lethal.

 

Dr(S) No -- Sending best wishes for a speedy recovery of the wee man.

Edited December 27, 2014 by Cheggers

[Hairy Celt]

What's white, then goes white and black, then white, black and pink, then white, black, pink and yellow?

[Northernlights]

Dr (S) No I wish you all the best for your wee man.Know exactly what you are going through.

[Mandy Langlands]

Dr (S) No so glad he is improving. Hope you do get him home for the New Year... Please keep us updated. xxx

[Norrance]

Clear and frosty here tonight. Currently -2.2C from a max of 0.9C. Some wintry flurries this morning but had to go through to Perth for my snow fix. Quite a few other Dundonians seemed to have the same idea this afternoon though they didn't look so happy later on.

 

Hope your little one recovers well for the New Year Dr .

[blitzen]

What's white, then goes white and black, then white, black and pink, then white, black, pink and yellow?

A mouthful of Liquorice Allsorts!

Edited December 27, 2014 by Blitzen

[Swave Snow]

Like the idea of the stealth snow era

 snowing last 1 hour roughly not much to show on the radar Aviemore

[edo]

Well done mini dr snow.....keep fighting wee man.....looking fwd to hearing his progress and lets hope there's a blizzard outside after you get him home safe.....

Flow has switched to a NE flow now and bit of precipitation in NE England but little in Scotland although a few places should be seeing a dusting

[Guest]

Well done mini dr snow.....keep fighting wee man.....looking fwd to hearing his progress and lets hope there's a blizzard outside after you get him home safe.....

Flow has switched to a NE flow now and bit of precipitation in NE England but little in Scotland although a few places should be seeing a dusting

 

I read on Traffic Scotland that there was snow on the A68 south of Jedburgh and one thing led to the other and I've had a wee trip almost as far as Carter Bar. Stopped in a lay-by and got out and played in the snow (yes, I'm 36, and no, I don't care). Built a wee snowman and everything There was about an inch of snow where I stopped, I would have gone right up to the border but I saw the state of the snowplough coming down from the border and changed my mind. It's one thing being a big kid and going to find snow to play in, but quite another ending up in a ditch and having to be rescued. I suspect there was more snow at the border as it's far higher up (260m for the lay-by and 420m at the border), but that's merely me guessing.

[edo]

Classic CMD....never too old to hunt the snow....but time it hunted us instead though

[Guest]

I'm going to keep a wee track of the storm track for into the New Year, let's see if this stays as currently forecast or if it does what two lows have done recently and heads well south:

 

 

 

 

My money's on south, but that probs means it will stay as currently forecast

[Blizzardo]

Coldest morning of the winter for me so far at -3.8c/-5.0c with a hard frost.

[lorenzo]

Get Well soon Dr Sno Jnr, nice to read that the wee guy is on the mend and hope the improvement continues.

 

 

Another frosty start here, had a wee drive to Perth last evening and on my way to Dunning stopped in the valley and got a great view of the Milky Way, a good couple of degrees colder up there than the central belt also, very nice.

 

Still not managed to invest in a camera of any note, so apologies for the phone pics.

 

Last night saw an amazing sunset full of winter and this morning the car roof looked great with frost.

 

 

 

Another cold one tonight, cracking HP in charge.

[Hawesy]

Best wishes to Dr Sno Jr!

Much to my surprise we avoided an air frost last night (min +0.6c). Must have been an east coast thing as I see Aberdeen, Inverbervie and Charterhall also stayed above freezing. Leuchars had an early frost before the temp rose.

Lovely sunny morning, +2.6c.

[NorthernRab]

-3.8'C here at 8:30AM, currently -3.6. Everything frozen and a proper frost - cars, pavements, roofs and even fences / walls are sparkling. High cloud in parts is preventing the sun having much of an influence but still a bright morning.

[blitzen]

Morning.

Another lovely one here also with a slight frost.   I wonder why it is that so far, this area never reaches the predicted low temps that everyone else seems to be achieving?  Last night again we only managed to achieve -0.6c.   Starting to get a bit grumpy now as we don't seem to be getting anywhere this winter (IMBY)  

 

 

 

Lovely to hear the wee one is making progress Dr (S) No.   Must have been a very worrying time for you all.

[NUT]

A real proper frost. Almost forgot what they we're as it been a while since we had a good one. Blue skies and will likely be the same tonight again

[Norrance]

Best wishes to Dr Sno Jr!

Much to my surprise we avoided an air frost last night (min +0.6c). Must have been an east coast thing as I see Aberdeen, Inverbervie and Charterhall also stayed above freezing. Leuchars had an early frost before the temp rose.

Lovely sunny morning, +2.6c.

Only a few miles away we got down to -4C. Must be just being slightly further away from the warmer North Sea? Still -3.2C now in the bright sunshine.

[SW Saltire]

Sparkling sunshine this morning. Low of -2.8c and everything frozen solid. Now -0.3c and starting to thaw in the sun.

Felt bitter in the 10-15 mph wind that was present at 7:30 but it has since receded.

Glad some of you have had some snow...

I'm unsure what to make of this winter (with respect to Jan, Feb). It looks like no significant cold spell is apon us....

However, if we can be the right side of the PFJ (certainly much better chance of that than say London/Brighton etc does) then it could be a snow fest.

This is all in FI however... Nobody will complain if it isn't -20 if we have 5 feet of snow outside but cold rain/sleet in mid January isn't going to cut it.

We're reaching a crunch point in this winter, let's hope it delivers.... Everything crossed

Edited December 28, 2014 by SW Saltire

[Hawesy]

Only a few miles away we got down to -4C. Must be just being slightly further away from the warmer North Sea? Still -3.2C now in the bright sunshine.

Yes it's certainly not unusual for Crail to be 2 or 3c milder than Leuchars on a clear winter's night. Leuchars averages 58 air frosts a year and I'd estimate I normally see 20-25. Something happened yesterday evening around 10pm as Leuchars went from -3c at 2200 to 0c at 2300 and stayed around there the rest of the night: http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/current/EGQL.html Perhaps it was the slight freshening of the winds, but they stayed westerly.

Interesting that you recorded -4c. I drove back from Kingennie on Christmas night, it was -3c when I left Angus and +2c by the time I got back home. The Fife Riviera!

[LomondSnowstorm]

Sparkling sunshine this morning. Low of -2.8c and everything frozen solid. Now -0.3c and starting to thaw in the sun.

Felt bitter in the 10-15 mph wind that was present at 7:30 but it has since receded.

Glad some of you have had some snow...

I'm unsure what to make of this winter (with respect to Jan, Feb). It looks like no significant cold spell is apon us....

However, if we can be the right side of the PFJ (certainly much better chance of that than say London/Brighton etc does) then it could be a snow fest.

This is all in FI however... Nobody will complain if it isn't -20 if we have 5 feet of snow outside but cold rain/sleet in mid January isn't going to cut it.

We're reaching a crunch point in this winter, let's hope it delivers.... Everything crossed

 

For the moment it looks like the NH pattern is turning more favourable for mid latitude cold but with the vortex rather poorly positioned for us. However, with the strat vortex splitting, at least temporarily, there may be a corresponding split at lower levels too, which would translate to a ridge building from Alaska across to East Greenland, which could lead to at least a wedge of higher heights to develop around Iceland and divert the jet far enough south to put us in a properly cold setup. This could be helped in particular by hints of more warming taking place over Greenland, which could finally finish off the annoying lobe of PV that seems to consistently find the worst place to setup. Certainly worth dropping into the strat thread if you haven't already to see why we're unlikely to see a repeat of last winter's dismal failure : https://forum.netweather.tv/topic/81567-stratosphere-temperature-watch-20142015/page-47 With some forecasts already getting close to a technical SSW there is a lot of hope for HLB to finally end up dominating for mid January onwards.

 

Either way, with the Alaskan ridge pushing into the Arctic and displacing the vortex to our side, there's likely to be a lot of cold air around, so even modest amplification on the back of that storm system could bring more opportunities for snow:

 

Compared to last winter I'd say it's been fairly reasonable so far, nothing hugely mild with a fair few air frosts and some falling snow, so pretty much average for December. However, as I said I would expect things to improve on that front as January goes on, with the mild spell forecast already being whittled down to potentially just a day or two before cold air returns from the northwest (moreso on the euro models, GFS doesn't have as much amplification so ends up with less of a cold interlude):

 

 

 

It is frustrating that we haven't managed to get a decent dumping of snow yet while much of central England has, but the upcoming pattern has loads of snowfall potential for us, whether from a cold zonal setup (the same synoptics we saw early this month would be significantly colder in January as both the SSTs and upper air temperatures over the Arctic are lower) or from a sufficient block establishing over this side of the pole.

A look at the analogue dates from the NOAA 6-10 day outlook suggests that this is far from run of the mill zonality - 2 of the best 10 matches are from 62/63 and another 2 from 83/84:

[grifter]

Must've been a hard frost overnight as I looked out about midnight and everything including grass/cars/road was white with that leaf effect frost on most cars. Today same story, looks like max daytime temps have probably barely went above 0 to 1oC, water in unused plant pots etc. still frozen. Grass still white and birds hoppin about the garden eating the seeds we put out.

 

Wouldn't mind a walk out but still taking it easy with my knee so avoiding icy paths!

Edited December 28, 2014 by grifter

[SW Saltire]

Great post LS.

I hope that we do hit the 'jackpot' so to speak and the cards fall in our favour as it feels like that hasn't been the case so far.

Yep, 'cold zonal' is far from unwanted say Midlands Northwards but of course many in the MOD thread are further south and thus view it as a poor outlook, so would I if I lived in Bournemouth etc.

I just hope some of these more promising charts verify and that if we do get a SSW can deliver as it did in a recent winter

A surprisingly low max of -0.1c considering we were at -0.3c by 10:30am. Very cold and sunny all day.

Now down to -1.1c so should be a cold one, although the met office are forecasting some cloud to come in so we shall see

[Guest]

Great post LS.

I hope that we do hit the 'jackpot' so to speak and the cards fall in our favour as it feels like that hasn't been the case so far.

Yep, 'cold zonal' is far from unwanted say Midlands Northwards but of course many in the MOD thread are further south and thus view it as a poor outlook, so would I if I lived in Bournemouth etc.

I just hope some of these more promising charts verify and that if we do get a SSW can deliver as it did in a recent winter

A surprisingly low max of -0.1c considering we were at -0.3c by 10:30am. Very cold and sunny all day.

Now down to -1.1c so should be a cold one, although the met office are forecasting some cloud to come in so we shall see

 

If that last low had trailed through Scotland instead of heading south we'd all be raving on about it. I have a feeling it's only a matter of time now. Any of the charts I've been looking through have snow potential, it's simply a case of keeping our fingers crossed and having a big slice of patience pie for tea for the next week or two.

[A Winter's Tale]

An absolutely fantastic day of proper winter weather. A really hard frost which hasn't lifted and us forming again after a minimum of -6c at Glasgow airport, coldest temperature since 22nd November 2013 and a high of 2C coldest since 25th November 2013. Already -4C so another cold night is in the cards and tomorrow should be the 13th air frost this month which would equal the total for the entirety of DJF last year. In many senses, this winter is already better than last year with this month being a respectable, seasonal, typical December. The inky disappointment is this month was lacking on the snow front, not a complete right off with some snow to speak of it hasnt been meaningful or frequent enough. I've just come back from a day out in Fife and from what I can see in the models, it is perhaps looking a little more favourable for snow opportunities in the New Year.