Benvironment

The South came good today

Did it snow at home in your absence à la 101?

Awww, perfect! I was planning on heading north tomorrow for a walk in the hills but looks like south is the better option. Biggar looks to have caught a good dump of snow too so perhaps tomorrow will be a Tinto kind of day The Lomonds got an inch or so and made a nice walk this morning.

Finally! Barely a wet 1cm but I'm taking it I just walked home through Glenrothes, which was by far the iciest walk I have done in years. More so than in the hills! A & E will be busy today I imagine.

Yeah we've had a few of those over the past week. Can't help laughing! Love the cold and seeing everything freezing up in the Lothians, though. Such a wonderful change to the rancid wet mildness of some of the last few Decembers. That said......we're not even halfway through the month yet so I suppose there's time for things to revert to normal.

I've got that funny feeling we won't see deep snow cover until May bank holiday weekend again ;-)

It's newsworthy to be fair....and snowy images do make a lot of folk very happy. It NEVER happens in the Midlands any more, although when I grew up down there in the 70s and 80s we got decent falls of snow at least every two or three years.....but the schools never closed for snow alone. They only did so when the boilers broke.....which they always did I find it hilarious that schools in Brum closed the other day for a disruptive 1cm of snow. Sign of the times I suppose. I'm excited for them, so I texted three of my relations in Warks / Gloucs yesterday asking "ARE YOU EXCITED!!??". None of them had a clue what I was talking about, so I grudgingly texted back telling them "Aaargh, snow's wasted on you lot!". That said, back in the day I never watched weather forecasts and I vividly remember that unbridled joy at pulling open the curtains in the morning and seeing that snow had magically appeared overnight, not knowing or expecting it to do so. I quite miss that

Not as cold here, but the current -4.1C is the coldest it's been since 12th March 2013. Being up on the hill we don't really get cold temperatures here, and never without snow cover, so it's impressive

Cold and red, not white, in Fife this evening.

Very wet snow was briefly falling (horizontally) just now in a heavier burst. 3.5C.

Not that windy here overnight either, oddly. 45mph top gust. Pushed up over 11C in the early hours but down to 4.7C now and looks likely to stay dry for the next few days......annoyingly! Happy for my snow-starved family in the English Midlands, though. Some of them haven't seen a snowflake for nearly five years!

Back home in snowless Fife.....so here's just one final snowy pic from this morning. There was a further two inches last night in Ballater, so I headed up Craigendarroch again this morning to make the most of it before coming home. Interestingly, though there was at least 6 inches in Ballater, just up the road in Braemar there was almost nothing. Some places get lucky under that sweet spot I suppose. Anyway, it's been a more memorable winter than last year already for me ;-)

Inside the maelstrom on Craigendarroch this morning. Chuffed to bits that we chose this week of all weeks to spend a few days in Ballater....cos clearly there's nowt in Fife ;-)

Unbelievably beautiful up above Ballater this afternoon It was sheltered in the trees but everywhere else it was, frankly, horrendous. Truth be told if I knew with certainty that snow would be on the hills for the next four weeks I'd be more discerning and wouldn't have gone up the hill today, but given you never know what's going to happen next you simply have to seize whatever fleeting moments you're handed.....even if you risk frostnip in the process!

Interesting drive over the Cairnwell this afternoon

It's been a while coming but we've had our first subzero temperature reading of the season this morning. A low of -1.3C

The shady side of Fife's roof is white this afternoon

It is very lightly snowing ?

Yep, it's called hair ice and is produced when water is forced out of tiny pores in the surface of dead wood, and the water freezes on contact with the subzero air. It's apparently the result of fungi within the wood producing carbon dioxide, which increases the pressure inside. Weird eh? I've attached a close up that shows how fine the 'hairs' are.

Fife this morning. Suffice to say I am smiling. A lot

Result!!

<laughs> Yeah that could have been a go-er if it was light sugary snow but now that it's stopped it's VERY wet out there. Temperature climbing. Drip drip drip

Utter utter respect for how you manage to keep up a cheery front in the face of general pish. I wouldn't be able to do it in your place! I'd be raging ;-)

Still piling up. About to don my ski goggles and head out for a wee wander.

Not sure if this will work as I've never uploaded a video before but this is what it's like up here just now.... Edit - strike that, didn't seem to work....so here's another photo instead