Scotland Weather discussion

[Mair Snaw]

4 minutes ago, Hairy Celt said:

What's the secret?

I've no idea if im honest, just never had a hangover that im aware of.

[Northernlights]

1 hour ago, Hairy Celt said:

How's yer heid today?

Sweepstake on how long Johnson lasts?

Odd showers here today, coming in on that Arctic blast. Arctic blast? Right wing ACC denying press trying to con us into thinking this is 'normal' for winter.

Aurora Storm has a wager of an extra large bar of chocolate with her partner  if he goes by February. Nice to see you back.

[Puffy MacCloud]

1 hour ago, Hairy Celt said:

What's the secret?

 

1 hour ago, Mair Snaw said:

I've no idea if im honest, just never had a hangover that im aware of.

You only get a hangover when / if you sober up. Evidently this is an experience that @Mair Snaw has yet to meet.

Edited January 19, 2022 by Puffy MacCloud

[snowidea]

On 18/01/2022 at 00:06, Hairy Celt said:

Morning all

Apologies for disappearing abruptly last year. I wasn't in a good place and felt it best to take a break. Largely resolved - or at least accepted - now.  I hope all is well with you all.

Just trying to figure out what's happened with multiple threads. Looks like @Ravelin pretty much has his own playground . And we have the same crappy emojis to sprinkle around.

High pressure eh. So tedious. We're getting occasional frosty mornings and not much more to show for winter here after a little thin snow last month.

Welcome back 

[Hairy Celt]

42 minutes ago, snowidea said:

Welcome back 

Thanks. I'll probably get banned for something before too long! (Shaking my fist at the sky at 3am...)

[Hairy Celt]

9 hours ago, Snowandrocks said:

If they do it's entirely down to the ridiculous decision to keep them closed even to locals during the prolonged period of great conditions last year. It was particularly frustrating when golf courses were open right through. 

I made the most of it on touring skis on local hills and forests but that doesn't keep anyone's business open. 

As I said above, hopefully we get a decent spell in Feb/March/April to keep them going. 

Golf course here was shut for ages - I thought they all were.  It was wonderful, you could wander around from green to green all day, and keep an eye on the saxifrages hanging on in a few places...

[Snowandrocks]

27 minutes ago, Hairy Celt said:

Golf course here was shut for ages - I thought they all were.  It was wonderful, you could wander around from green to green all day, and keep an eye on the saxifrages hanging on in a few places...

I think golf courses were closed during the first lockdown but open on subsequent ones - can't remember exactly but a golfing friend was definitely gloating about getting to play golf when I was complaining about Glenshee being forced to close. 

Anyway, the damage is done so hopefully a decent spell of weather arrives at some point to give them a boost. 

[skifreak]

On 18/01/2022 at 21:01, Paul said:

Yep, I'm not sensing I'll be getting the best value from my Cairngorm season pass this season, sadly. 

There’s been several weeks mid-mountain up could have been open, the weekend the Daylodge Poma was open it could have been open to the top of the mountain and still there is decent cover up in the Top Basin. It’s been noted that they’ve only run the snow guns around the bottom learning zone, no interest in trying to get the full length of the Carpark T-bar open for the duration of the season to keep the rest of the mountain open. Personally think they plug should be pulled and the ski area entirely removed, there is no way back to what it was, let alone what it could have been.

All it is doing is swallowing vast amounts of public money that would be far better invested across the other four ski areas, while the omnishambles that is CairnGorm drags down the whole industry. Depressing as hell. 

*apologies for the grossly off topic* 

[skifreak]

1 hour ago, Snowandrocks said:

I think golf courses were closed during the first lockdown but open on subsequent ones - can't remember exactly but a golfing friend was definitely gloating about getting to play golf when I was complaining about Glenshee being forced to close. 

Anyway, the damage is done so hopefully a decent spell of weather arrives at some point to give them a boost. 

Since we’re off topic, golf courses were not required to shut under Level 4 restrictions in Scotland and the ski areas went into the season with roughly the same operating criteria as golf courses for level 4 operations. (However, golf courses and tennis courts were closed in all 3 England lockdowns - so media coverage has often been misleading on the status of golf in Scotland).

The only lift served skiing last season at Glencoe, Glenshee and the Lecht took place under Level 4 - lockdown, but the rules were changed from 5th January. The intention was to keep ski centres, golf courses and tennis courts / clubs open for outside activities.

What appears to have changed was HIE closed down CairnGorm Mountain on Christmas Eve and made a big song and dance about how responsible they were being and that they were looking after the local commiunity, this set the precedent and HIE heavily lobbied to get the ski sector shutdown to stop the other areas getting ahead of CairnGorm. I’ve heard and seen enough stuff in the industry to be sure in my mind that it wasn’t Covid that shut the ski areas on 5th January 2021, it was HIE malfeasance. 

Edited January 19, 2022 by skifreak

[skifreak]

Oh and welcome back HC from one also been AWOL for a while! Hopefully we’re back for an inner Moray Firth snow fest! ️

[Hairy Celt]

Seeing as I'm still off-topic not having slept last night, I'd like to see golf courses turned into allotments. Golf has to be the least sporting sport out there, and with food prices rocketing (thanks Boris and your rich chums), there's demand for allotments like never before.

Oh and last night's forecast frost hasn't materialised here. 

[Puffy MacCloud]

Welcome home @Hairy Celt, nice to see you've found your way back. You'll not have watched darts or snooker then?

Frosty frost here this morning; -3.4⁰C at 08:00 and -2.6⁰C now, cloudless sky, sun’s oot, not a breath of wind. What’s not to like?

[Hairy Celt]

35 minutes ago, Puffy MacCloud said:

Welcome home @Hairy Celt, nice to see you've found your way back. You'll not have watched darts or snooker then?

Frosty frost here this morning; -3.4⁰C at 08:00 and -2.6⁰C now, cloudless sky, sun’s oot, not a breath of wind. What’s not to like?

Do darts and snooker even count as 'activities', in the most literal sense? I guess so, if sitting around for long periods and occasionally standing up to briefly wave your arms around... My brother-in-law watches snooker with his eyes shut. 

Allotmenteering however, while not sporting, is definitely an activity, and a very useful and enjoyable one.

[Northernlights]

No frost here either last night just a few light showers and 2c. 

While we are all off topic I remember paying for  monthly weather outlooks from the met office on poster sized sheets with lots of  climate info on the current month in them. This was in the late sixties early seventies if remember correctly.

A figure that sticks in my mind was the average  maximum temperature for my area in January was  39F or  4c Just shows how much January has warmed up in the last 50 odd years

[Northernlights]

4 hours ago, Hairy Celt said:

Seeing as I'm still off-topic not having slept last night, I'd like to see golf courses turned into allotments. Golf has to be the least sporting sport out there, and with food prices rocketing (thanks Boris and your rich chums), there's demand for allotments like never before.

Oh and last night's forecast frost hasn't materialised here. 

Joe Public has not got a clue about whats coming with food price rises as fertiliser rises 250 to 300% in a year.In Austraila beef is trading at record highs so no cheap food trade deal there for the UK  Better ask the Chinese if they could spare some?

[Hairy Celt]

5 minutes ago, Northernlights said:

Joe Public has not got a clue about whats coming with food price rises as fertiliser rises 250 to 300% in a year.In Austraila beef is trading at record highs so no cheap food trade deal there for the UK  Better ask the Chinese if they could spare some?

Not sure I want Chinese food. Fried grasshoppers always sticks in my mind. (Not that they'll admit to it at your local takeaway...)

[Ravelin]

4 hours ago, Hairy Celt said:

Not sure I want Chinese food. Fried grasshoppers always sticks in my mind. (Not that they'll admit to it at your local takeaway...)

Fried midges perhaps? Turn the tables on the little blighters. 

A little, and I really do mean a little, refrozen snow on the bottom of the car windscreen this morning. Otherwise another day with little of note weather wise. So far a low of 0.8C, high of 3.8C, currently 3.0C. 

[Paul]

20 hours ago, skifreak said:

There’s been several weeks mid-mountain up could have been open, the weekend the Daylodge Poma was open it could have been open to the top of the mountain and still there is decent cover up in the Top Basin. It’s been noted that they’ve only run the snow guns around the bottom learning zone, no interest in trying to get the full length of the Carpark T-bar open for the duration of the season to keep the rest of the mountain open. Personally think they plug should be pulled and the ski area entirely removed, there is no way back to what it was, let alone what it could have been.

All it is doing is swallowing vast amounts of public money that would be far better invested across the other four ski areas, while the omnishambles that is CairnGorm drags down the whole industry. Depressing as hell. 

*apologies for the grossly off topic* 

Yeah, must admit that I've been surprised how little effort seems to be going into opening anything other than a tiny slither at the bottom of the mountain. The first weekend that they said they'd be opening had enough snow for something more without doubt, and it's eye opening how little snow is going onto any of the up tracks. 

All very disappointing, not least because the season passes aren't exactly cheap. Hopefully the weather turns at some point, so they'll virtually have no choice but to open the rest of the mountain up. 

[Sceptical]

6 hours ago, Northernlights said:

No frost here either last night just a few light showers and 2c. 

While we are all off topic I remember paying for  monthly weather outlooks from the met office on poster sized sheets with lots of  climate info on the current month in them. This was in the late sixties early seventies if remember correctly.

A figure that sticks in my mind was the average  maximum temperature for my area in January was  39F or  4c Just shows how much January has warmed up in the last 50 odd years

The Cairngorm 2080 report by Mike Spencer, published 2018,is worth a read.

The Headlines:

"There’s been ~2 °C of warming in daily minimum temperatures (at Balmoral) over the past 100 years.

In to the future it is likely there will be increased variability in snow cover over the next two decades (some very snowy winters, some with very little snow).

After this global/Scottish temperatures will have increased enough that there will probably be a dramatic decrease in the number of days of snow cover each winter"

 

[Norrance]

Another rather average and uneventful day with some bright intervals at times with a max of 6.4C and a min of 2.1C . At least the sunsets have been nice.

[Hawesy]

21 minutes ago, Norrance said:

Another rather average and uneventful day with some bright intervals at times with a max of 6.4C and a min of 2.1C . At least the sunsets have been nice.

Very similar numbers here. It’s been a mild but not spectacularly mild month. Mean currently running 1.5c above average at Leuchars. It may not be exciting but as others have noted the sunshine has been welcome at this time of year!

[Hairy Celt]

9 hours ago, Northernlights said:

Joe Public has not got a clue about whats coming with food price rises as fertiliser rises 250 to 300% in a year.In Austraila beef is trading at record highs so no cheap food trade deal there for the UK  Better ask the Chinese if they could spare some?

I'm gonna dig up the rest of the lawn and get potatoes in!

[Hairy Celt]

Scottish weather gallery apparently has >19,000 images! What are they? Where can I see them??

[Quinach]

10 hours ago, Northernlights said:

Joe Public has not got a clue about whats coming with food price rises as fertiliser rises 250 to 300% in a year.In Austraila beef is trading at record highs so no cheap food trade deal there for the UK  Better ask the Chinese if they could spare some?

It's interesting to read that the Chinese have stockpiled an enormous amount of food, speculate as you will for the reason behind that but a holiday to Taiwan is not on the cards!

Going to be a turbulent year and the young un's are going to encounter/discover the dubious pleasure of inflation.

China hoards over half the world's grain, pushing up global prices

ASIA.NIKKEI.COM

---

Testy ties with U.S. and Australia could be prodding China to boost food reserves

As for the weather, basically a repeat performance of yesterday.

Max of 6c, plenty of sunshine and a cold NW wind veering W this evening.

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Quinach

[Northernlights]

China  and Russia(Gas) have control of most of the world's commodities and are waging an economic war against the west.

The Chinese in particular have been beavering away  gaining control of markets especially fertiliser (P and K) in the west. It would surprise you how many institutions  they have also got a financial interest in even in this country.