spindrift1980

There was quite a lot of snow from that event in the Glasgow area - enough for schools and workplaces to close early and the usual transport issues, but nothing too extreme (although I never went onto the high ground in those days!). Certainly one of the better snowfalls of the 90s in lower-lying parts of western Scotland though.

Big squall of snowflakes for a couple of minutes there, here in E K.

Very heavy snow cover in the higher hills between Glen Lochay and Glen Lyon on Saturday (the first day of meteorological spring!). View over Loch Lyon: Zoom lens shot of Beinn Heasgarnich:

Most snow in Scottish hills since 1945, reckons Hamish MacInnes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-26339994

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this winter. The weather on low ground has been hellish for obvious reasons, but the sheer amount of snowfall at altitude in the Scottish Highlands has been incredible, easily surpassing the much colder but drier recent winters, and has offered some memorable winter hillwalks on the (admittedly rare) occasions when the wind hasn't been howling. There will almost certainly be more snow surviving far into the summer than for many years, so this will continue to provide snow-related interest. The regular Atlantic storms when combined with the narrow

Snow has gone off in EK, but 1-2cm of snow cover. Not exactly an epic snowfall, but a pleasant surprise!

^ That's a similar level of cover to EK at the moment and it's coming down pretty heavily at the moment - getting there! It'll no doubt be rain just 50m or so lower on the road home though.

A slight white covering in EK but it looks a tad on the slushy side. Still snowing though, so you never know...

Starting to lie slightly on the grass now, actually.

Rain turning to wet snow in EK, but I can't really see it becoming 'proper' snow as it's already pretty heavy.

Pinky - haven't heard that one before! I wonder where that comes from. Official name is given on the map as Cap Law, but this is supposedly an error and it should really be Gap Law.

I'm envious - it's a lovely location - been up walking there a few times. Here's a photo I took this summer (it's looking very different on the cam at the moment!):

Snow fairly pelting down in EK in big fluffy flakes but it's just a shade too mild and too wet to lie - a pity as it would be accumulating nicely at this rate! Pretty raw and horrible out there in wind-driven wet snow - a day to stay indoors.

Pah, the usual scenario again where EK is turning white but down in Motherwell it's mostly just wet with snow struggling to stick. Hopefully it will improve this evening but currently the temp is hovering between 1 and 2C.

Starting to look pretty wintry in East Kilbride - it was melting between showers at first but hopefully nightfall and a decent 'base' will keep it sticking around.

Some nice rime build-ups on fenceposts too:

Some photos from Glen Shee on Friday, 7/2/14 (Alan O'Dowd):

As it happens, I was walking in the (very snowy) hills above Spittal of Glenshee on Friday. Having been unable to resist a rare day of benign weather forecast for Friday, I took the day off work and was rewarded with a superb day. The snow line was generally about 450 - 500m. I didn't drive as far up as the ski centre, where the summit of the road is 665m. The first photo is at 650m, climbing to just over 800m at the summit of Ben Earb by the third photo.

Almost completely dry in EK today - just a bit of snizzle now and then. Just shows how pronounced the 'rain shadow' effect is in the central belt when the wind is coming from certain directions.

Tiny snowflakes blowing around in a raw wind up in East Kilbride (at about 150m asl).

There was certainly a big frontal snowfall giving 20cm plus to Glasgow and western Scotland on the weekend of 11/12 March 2006, which back then was probably the most snow we'd had since February 2001 or maybe even February 1996. I have to say that my perception of March is that even during the warming climate of the late 1980s onwards, it's generally stayed a pretty cold month, but this might be a particularly northern/Scottish viewpoint.

I don't like the look of the dry area surrounding Glasgow on that chart The Reporting Scotland forecast for Friday mentioned 'snow to fairly low levels for a time' or something along those lines, but it did also feature that dry patch in the Glasgow area!!

Yes, it was 1999/2000 I was thinking of, thanks. Will be interesting to see how the late-lying snow patches fare this year as the big westerly/south-westerly storms have deposited much snow on aspects east through north, which get least sunshine and where snow persists longest. That spring of 1994 was the one where (just short of my 14th birthday) I was first introduced to the joys of hillwalking, so I didn't realise at the time that not every April and May wouldn't feature that level of snow cover!

Often the winters with the largest build-ups of snow on the Scottish mountains are those in which the low ground experiences little snowfall. The period of westerly/south-westerly storms in December and general zonal pattern have obviously been very wet but the uppers have been low enough to keep the vast majority of high altitude precipitation falling as snow. It's worth bearing in mind that ski-ing in Scotland relies primarily on drifting and retention of snow in areas with natural snow-holding capabilities (the figures you quote are level depths, I believe, and there will be drifts many t

Wet snow falling at 300m in the Trossachs today. Didn't go any higher today as the winds were a tad 'fresh'!