snow1975

Have you reported the dead buzzard to the SSPCA?

Anyone on Cairngorm summit?

Steady 26 knots outside from the SSE

Indeed and the Met Office did not issue a wind warning on Tuesday for the Central Belt of the Scotland. The A1 must have been affected by the SW wind bouncing over the Lammermuirs under certain (stable?) atmospheric conditions.

A stiff southerly wind producing the Foehn effect in the Achfary area. The temperature over the open Sea is nearer to 10C.

Hi there, You have several options. https://munroinstruments.com/product/im147-in-line-cup-anemometer-wind-direction-vane/ I love the analogue dials. They are £390 each and the IM 147 will cost you £6000. Manufactured in the UK. http://www.youngusa.com/products/7/5.html http://www.youngusa.com/products/4/28.html https://novalynx.com/store/pc/200-2201-200-2206-NovaVane-Wind-Sensor-19p323.htm https://novalynx.com/store/pc/200-2218-Analog-Indicating-Wind-System-19p324.htm

I'll class myself as an 'amateur'. The latest GFS 00z/06z hints at westerly mobility from about Xmas Eve onwards. According to BigJoeBastardi SST anomalies in the Pacific are similar to Dec 1983. The so-called 'Polar Vortex' will make an appearance across the Midwest this week, similar to Dec 1983, but not quite as extreme. Going forward, I'll take a punt that early January will be unsettled; mild in the south but colder at times in the North, with snow falling to increasingly lower levels. I hope it will turn out like Jan 1984 (nearly 2 feet of snow in my back garden).

A PL weakens rapidly once it makes landfall.

Can't argue with that. This 'Polar Low' has warmer uppers than the ones that struck the Shetland Isles in Feb 2001 and Dec 1995. The latter dumped 1ft of snow on Xmas Eve.

In the summer it would be rain, not snow. What are the wind speeds around this so-called Polar Low?

I don't think it is a true Polar Low. A polar Low is a sub-synoptic feature which will not show up on a synoptic chart. I remember reading an article in Weather magazine about the Shetland Polar Low in February 2001. 500Hpa temperatures need to be below -52C. Forms in a strong baroclinic flow. Warm cored like it's tropical cousin. Centre filled with Nimbostratus producing heavy snow with gale force 8+ force winds at the surface.

Moderate to heavy driving, horizontal sleet. Edit: can see wet flakes at times.

We have 2cm snow cover here now. Started about 4pm, just light snowpellets. Heavy snow/snowpellets since then. Thundersnow at 4.49pm....loud thunder accom;panied by snowflakes and pellets about 5-7mm across.....hail. Can see next Cb coming in from WNW. I can confirm thundersnow at 4.49pm. Remarkable, especially when showers are coming from the west.

Light rain in Leven at 10am. Light showers of snowpellets here and up hill at 200masl, 11am-12pm. 1-2mm size, conical, falling fae Stratocumulus. Wind 130deg, 2 metre speed, 10mph. Dry-bulb 3C, wet-bulb 1.3C, dewpoint -2C.

Ls, where were you living in Feb 2001? I was working in London at the time and missed that event. It started as rain on Saturday and turned to settling snow Saturday evening and it continued to snow for the next day or so then turned back to sleet. However, my folks tell me the snow was fairly deep in Baintown. Levenmouth and the coastal strip was snowless, as usual. When I returned home for a few days about 1 week later, there was still snowdrifts lying around the edges of the fiields. On the higher ground at 200masl, just to the north, there was still a full, deep cover with huge snowdrifts.

If anyone is interested in getting there own 'standard' manual instruments/equipment, here is a list of suppliers. Stevenson screen http://www.metspec.net/ liquid-in-glass thermometers, including grass/concrete min http://www.russell-scientific.co.uk/meteorological-thermometers-43-c.asp soil thermometers http://www.russell-scientific.co.uk/soil-thermometers-25-c.asp 5'' rain gauge http://www.russell-scientific.co.uk/1252-splay-based-rain-gauge-86-p.asp http://www.fairmountweather.com/product.php?shopprodid=15 CoCoRAHS 4'' plastic gauge http://www.cocorahs.org/ http://www.weatheryourway.com/cocorahs/store.html http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/cocorahs.htm Hand held anemometer http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/inspeedHH.htm http://www.r-p-r.co.uk/kestrel/k1000.htm barometer http://www.russell-scientific.co.uk/k60-kew-type-station-barometer-36-p.asp You could send your data to the following; Climatological Observers Link http://www.colweather.org.uk/ http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~brugge/ Met Office WOW http://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/

The top one is the maximum, mercury-in-glass thermometer and the bottom one is the minimum, alcohol-in-glass.

Speaking of wet-bulb temperatures, here is a photo showing my set-up in a Stevenson screen. The wet-bulb on the right is covered in tubular cotton lab wick which dips into a container of distilled water.

Ice pellets/sleet mixed with rain for the past 30 minutes. Wind dirn 130deg, 2 metre avg speed, 12.8mph. Tdry=4.5C, Twet=3.3C. The paths/roads started to dry up overnight. A nip in the air today with a SSE wind bringing in drier continental air.

I'm only looking at the charts that are in front of me tonight. Of course, they probably will have something different tomorrow. If the up and coming cold shot across the US can dig as far south as possible if could amplify things for us downstream. Plus there's talk about a Strat warming event, as there is every winter these days. Everyone is looking east for cold and snow. It can come from the west. I would like to see deep, fast moving Atlantic lows barrel toward us, preferably on a southerly track, so we stay north of them. If they draw in the brutal cold across the States, we could have a Jan 1984 esque type scenario. There is potential for big snow events down the line, not nessecarily from an easterly set-up.

beat you to what?

The short answer is yes. The last ECM12z chart shows the Altantic breaking through. The GFS12z becomes zonal with deep lows and stormy weather before the Azores high moves north in FI and it becomes very mild and yuk!

No, most of the snowdrifts were on the leeward side, the north side. The wind/snow was blown through gaps in the houses and deposited in drifts to the north of the houses.

yes, another 'powder' snow event with a southerly breeze. I measured average 13cm with 50+cm drifts on the north side of the house.

Correct, 33cm in my back garden. It snowed for nearly 2 days non stop, air temp -1 to -2C with just a light S to SE breeze so there wasn't any modification by the North Sea in my coastal area. The cold was deep and embedded back then, its a different beast this winter.