Benvironment

Nipped into Kinross this afternoon / evening and could be forgiven for thinking I'd climbed a hill in Norway!

Hmm.....pondering whether to stay up for a headtorch walk or risk getting up super early to do the same. Might have to do the former, as walking through sopping wet snow as it turns to rain is the absolute pits!

2cm here.....and still no air frost this season. Headed straight out the door before even having breakfast though

I'm envious of the stunning scenes you'll have if & when the cloud lifts. Beautiful part of the world

Aww, the fact that they're printed photos gives them an extra 'this is how it used to be, folks' quality

<sighs> Oh any chance to reminisce! Dec 2010 feels like a dream in comparison to most recent winters. I still can't really believe it happened - we had snow on the ground here for 48 consecutive days! 1st December looked something like this.... ...which was lovely for me but my landlord wasn't so happy. His barn collapsed under the weight, as did many other barns in Fife that month: I was incredibly fortunate to have started working from home a few months earlier so didn't need to commute, which is just as well because we couldn't get off the hill for two weeks. I remember chatting to the postman a few days before the snow was forecast to arrive, and us asking what happens if we can't get mail (i.e. do we need to head down to the depot) and he said 'ach don't worry, the snow only ever keeps us off deliveries for a day or two.'. Ha! Didn't see him for three weeks!!! When he finally returned, before we could even say hello he just shouted "yeah I know, me and my big mouth!!" And happily, working from home (with a very understanding boss) meant I could be out pretty much every morning, snowshoeing from the door! With all the heather and crags on East Lomond, even after heavy falls there's always SOMETHING poking through, but I've never seen it looking like it did, not before or since: When we've had those big easterly falls in 2013 and 2018, it always comes on a strong wind so you don't get uniform cover on the hills. This was so different. And it was SUNNY too! The Lomond Hills...and Fife more widely.....generally looked awesome ...with plenty of snowshoe excursions into the evenings too, with a headtorch making all that hoar frost sparkle. The feral farm cat, who NEVER came near us before Dec 2010, appeared at the door during the height of the freeze and effectively moved in for six months And then, when we FINALLY got off the hill on 21st December and nipped into Perth to stock up, we were gobsmacked when we saw the Tay. Unbelievable. Gawd it was an amazing month. Will we ever see the like again in these parts?

It's a real mix. Hovering at over 7C here and still no air frost this season

13.4C here earlier this evening, which makes it the mildest November day since I started recording data in 2010

The glow it casts is bonkers, especially when there's low cloud. We're ten miles away here but on the worst days, even here, it sounds like there's an idling tractor behind the house. Must be an endless nightmare for folk in Cowdenbeath, Crossgates and Lochgelly etc.

I've always taken my rain gauge readings with a pinch of salt but that's actually reassuring. I've recorded 60mm here since yesterday morning.

Ooo it'd be nice! It brings to mind two decent walks in snow during early falls but there were quite some time ago now. Second week in October back in 2011 and having a lovely blizzard below Stob Binnein: And then even better....in 2007 I think.....two inches of snow on Conival and Ben More Assynt towards the end of September: Didn't last long though, that September one. It had all melted by lunch time. Made it memorable though My memories of the first few years in Fife from 2010 onwards are that the Cairngorms got their first decent lying snow in October every year, but in recent years it's seemed harder to come by? Might just be my rubbish old brain failing me though!

Oh lord, I remember saying that at the start of last winter

Super! Just in time for my days off

Rancid. Rancid rancid rancid rancid rancid rancid rancid rancid rancid rancid rancid rancid!!!!!!! The most rancid day in a veeeeery long time. 30mm on the rain gauge here so far. I feel for all you westies having to put up with this kind of thing for the 90% of the year when the lows spin everything in YOUR direction

Ugh, my roof leak still hasn’t been properly sorted since the August storm. Really not looking forward to this

Peaked at 12C here, and coupled with the lengthening shadows it does make it feel more seasonal. It was about time we got some single digit nights up here as the persistence of mild nights was pushing the month to be the mildest of the ten Septembers I've had here in the Lomonds. But thankfully the run of cooler days is bringing it back down to something closer to average. Same happened last month with August. It was set to be the mildest I'd recorded but then the final week brought it down a tad.

You can do a lot worse! I like your weekend routine of smaller hills one day and bigger hills on the next, a great way to spend the weekend when the weather is favourable. I wasn't out & about on the Saturday but Sunday morning headed up Ben Vrackie from Killiecrankie. Gawd it was glorious! 4C at the start so lovely and fresh and cold, with no midges, no ticks.....and only one ked! The same sadly couldn't be said for the previous Friday on Fraochaidh when I was picking keds out my hair at the rate of one a minute for 9hrs. Horrid! Couldn't detract from an otherwise fine walk though: That feels like an age ago now, though, given how cold it's gone by comparison. I went up Sron Garbh from Kinlochleven yesterday and it was a pretty cold all day, especially on the tops in the morning. So nice to see frost on the ground during the drive north, with much of the stretch between Lix Toll and Rannoch tinged with white And I do get a geeky kick out of seeing the frost warning light come on Enjoying the gradual browning of the landscape, but a nice white dusting would be just the ticket right about now! But regardless, September is a glorious month for hillwalking in Scotland. Lots of stags roaring yesterday too!

Ah that’s interesting. We only had a handful where the bang came within a second or two but there plenty of flashes originating from somewhere off to the right (west).

Cobbled together some footage from Tuesday night. We're fortunate I think, being up so high, that we got to see pretty much every flash going! Like a true pro.....I didn't have a fully charged battery So had to break off a few times to charge it for 10 mins or so but otherwise it's all in real time. I'll never forget it!

Jeez!! I'd only say what everyone else has been saying. Never experienced anything like that in my life. Don't know what was happening on the side of the house but one of the ceiling air vents in the bathroom deposited loads of water on the floor. And the top floor flat I rent out in Edinburgh sprung several leaks too. Power must have gone off and on a dozen times before staying off for about three hours this morning. Walking outside just now, you can't believe any of it happened!

Make that three power cuts....

Couple of brief power cuts here but we're hanging on. Been standing at the door for nearly four hours!!!

THIS IS INSAAAAAAAAANE!!!!!!

Oh glad to hear someone else experienced that. I pointed it out to colleague this afternoon in West Lothian as we were stood outside talking.

The storm was off to the west over Kinross, but it certainly looked the part from here