Ravelin

Just to continue the theme, wet, grey and miserable here too. Just about anything is better than this and I'd take cold, bright and frosty even without the snow (although that is always preferred). Ravelin

Topic or no topic at least this thread retains a certain degree of sanity. I don't know why I ever decided to sneak a peak in the model thread but now I have I'm addicted, but oh my, isn't it a rollercoaster ride. Even with my very basic knowledge of meteorology the tendency for some to latch onto a fantastic looking chart way, way beyond the point of reliability and then to be despondent when it changes a day or two later is just baffling. Much as I'd love to see some more snow this winter, and some heavy stuff at that, we'll get what we get and no amount of staring at charts will make what we wish for happen. It's only 7th Jan, the models are only really reliable 3-4 days ahead, we've plenty of winter left! Ravelin

As I predicted yesterday, we have a slight ground frost here this morning so winter hasn't disappeared completely.

Quiet in here at the moment, a bit like the weather. Here today it's been mild as predicted. It was a bit breezy earlier with light cloud but now the cloud seems to have gone and the wind has dropped. I suspect we may see a ground frost tonight if it stays like this and the predicted low of 1-2DegC is accurate. I've actually lurked in the model thread for the last 2 days. Interesting although I don't claim to understand half of it. Between that and the strat thread my summary would be "likely in a week or so to start getting colder again although no one can predict with any accuracy yet just when, how cold, for how long, or if that will be accompanied with snow or stay largely dry". Basically I'm probably no the wiser for having looked than if I hadn't. Ravelin

Yeah I wholeheartedly agree, but then we're well prepared. After not being able to buy a snow shovel or grit for love nor money the two winters before, we stocked up Nov 2011 with both in preparation for the approaching winter. We all know what then happened and I think the shovels got thier first use recently i.e. Dec 2012. Ravelin

Sure I saw a post in the last few days bemoaning the 'pish' weather the UK is subjected to. I wasn't in a position to reply to it at the time and I can't seem to find it again to quote it. Borne out of fustration no doubt and yes, it's fustrating that we don't get the nice warm summber and cold snowy winter of contintental Europe or America. It could be worse though. I had the luck to live for 3 years in Orlando. Overall it was a geat experience, but as far as weather goes, monotinous! For 6-8mths of the year you were a slave to airconditioning cos other than early morning and late evening it was just too damn hot and humid to be bearable (and although I love snow and cold I also don't mind a bit of heat). You could pretty much be sure of heavy rain every day during that period too, generally any time between 2-6pm was a good bet (and it makes to downpours here look like a light shower). The only saving grace was if you liked thunderstorms cos I saw some right crackers during my time there. Gets scarey though when there's no dicernable time lapse between the flash and the crack (not rumble!). The winter months were much more pleasant, being warm and generally dry. Still a monotonous succession of blue skys and sunny days though, with even a slight frost being a major news story due to the effect on the orange/citrus trees. We may not have anything close to the perfect climate but I prefer it to that and it is rarely dull. If only I could get it to be cold and snowy when I want to go skiing, and dry and sunny when I want to go hill walking....that's what i find most fustrating, not getting the right weather when I have the time and desire to get out and about. Ravelin

Well at least any lack of snow in the next week or two may encourage me to get out running and try to shift some of the Xmas excess from around my waist. I could also do with a lack of gales and horizontal rain too in that respect. Hopefully the signs in the strat mean we'll get back to some chillier weather by mid to late Jan. I can't say I understand much of the strat stuff yet but it'll be interesting to see how everything materialises. Ravelin

Glad you managed to shift your car! I live quite close to the River Don and it was well up yesterday morning, probably almost as high as I've ever seen it. Touch wood though I think it would take a truely exceptional event, flooding a massive area, to raise the water level high enough to reach our house. On the other side of the village they are building new houses. Quite high spec, expensive ones too. Well they are that high spec they had an outdoor pool yesterday, and it was still there this morning. Not sure if any of the houses were flooded but if not it looked damn close. I did wonder at the time they started building cos the bottom corner of the field they were turning into a housing estate had a tendency to flood in heavy rain. I assumed the builders would put in extra drainiage but if they have it isn't nearly enough! Oh, forgot to mention earlier, I had to scrape the car windscreen at 8:45am this morning so cooler weather has returned. Ravelin

I'll add my Xmas wishes too, especially to anyone affected by the bad weather this week (I hope everyone in Shetland has managed to stock up with Xmas cheer). It doesn't seem to have done any favours to the ski areas either from a quick check this morning. I had an interesting journey down to the central belt yesterday morning. It was dry with even a bit of blue sky showing when we left at 9am, with no more real rain forcast for the day or otherwise we might not have bothered. There were some good puddles on the roads heading into Aberdeen but it was on the way out of Aberdeen heading south on the A90 that we began to wonder if it was sensible. The road heading up the hill from the Bridge of Dee was a river for most of the way on the inside carriageway. I'm not talking a thin covering but an inch or two deep flooding down the whole width of the inside lane. Luckily the outside lane was mostly unnaffected. The stretch from Aberdeen to Forfar had to be treated with care. There were some large, but not too deep, puddles across part or the whole of the carriageway in places. Even more dangerous were the deposits of gravel that had been washed across the road, some of which were quite substantial and in places some of it was golf or even tennis sized lumps of rock. The wife also commented that it was like something out of a zombie film as it was quiet and we kept coming across clusters of abandoned cars at the side of the road. At least we had daylight, I can imagine it must have been a nightmare on that road in the dark and heavy rain on Sat night/Sun morning. To top it all off, near Strathcarro the north bound carriageway was completely closed due to flooding. At that point there's a solid concrete divider between the north and southbound carriageways. That wall was doing a good job of retaining a puddle large enough that a road worker standing in it was up to his waist! After Forfar it wasn't too bad, just a lot of surface water but no real flooding (well on the roads, plenty of flooding in the fields, especially the river Earn between Perth and Stirling). Luckily by the time we came back up, in the dark, the road had been cleared of both floods and debris. Hats off to the maintenance crews and police who must have had a rather busy day. Ravelin

I saw that video earlier, you can just imagine the sense of relief when they got the boat through the harbour entrance. Ravelin

The roads are pretty wet up here and the river Don is out of it's banks upstream of the village. That's not particularily unusual and it's not as high as I've seen it previously, but with it forcast to keep raining here pretty much constantly until Sunday I expect it'll be continuing to rise for a while yet. I don't think we've had it as bad as the likes of Tayside & Fife either. Not sure how well the ski resorts are doing out of this so far. A quick check this morning shows Glenshee certainly has improved (from a poor starting point), Lecht doesn't seems to have suffered from it's low height but hasn't really had much accumulation either, and Cairngorm may have done quite well as the funicular tunnel is blocked it says. I suspect a degree or two cooler would have helped a lot and I didn't notice any of the snow gates being closed overnight so it can't have been that heavy. Ravelin

I always remember what a ski instructor at Glenshee told me as a kid.."if you can ski in Scotland then you can ski anywhere" which was referring to the fact that the runs were frequently icy, narrow, broken and strewn with rocks & heather. I've skiied in the Alps (France/Switzerland), Pyrannees (Andorra) and Rockies (Utah) but if you catch the conditions just right then Scotland can be just as good as anywhere. The view from Nevis Range on a bright, crisp day is up there with the best views of any ski resort. Of course, the problem with skiing in Scotland is managing to catch the conditions just right! Ravelin

Windy, but only fairly light rain here so far. Then again, looking at the forecast for the next 4 days we're only just getting started! Ravelin

White Christmas decided by 'warring' in the air (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-20781276) Says pretty much the same as has been said here, who's moonlighting? Ravelin

Well lets hope that at least the ski centres get snow the next few days, even if it looks like most of us will be drenched instead. I'd not quite say "the Ski centres are having a fantastic season!" from what I can see. Glenshee hasn't been open at all yet, and looks quite pathetic on todays webcam. Glencoe and Nevis have both had some skiing but limited. The more easterly centres seem to have done best with skiing at both Cairngorm and Lecht for nearly 2 weeks(?) now. Cairngorm appears to only really be skiable on the higher runs though and the Lecht webcam is showing a noticeable reduction in snow cover over the last few days. For December it's not been a bad start to the season but I'm sure all of the centres would be more than glad of a huge dump of snow. If they get that then it might be enough to see them throught the inevitable thaw/top up cycle that can make skiing in Scotland so "interesting". Ravelin

If my work ever find out how addictive weather watching is then the government may be losing the tax on my then non-existent wages. Well if winter is supposed to be over according to some on the MT thread then personally i'm not seeing it. Yes it's been warmer the last few days than it was but the hills I can see around Kemnay still have patches of snow on them. The grass in my garden is still pretty frozen under the immediate top layer, there's still plenty of patches of ice and thin snow remaining around the village, the lower paths at Bennachie are still well iced up in places when we went for a walk there with the dog today etc. We even had a frost overnight, which lingered throughout the day in shaded spots. All quite wintery signs for me, even if we aren't burried in 6ft snow drifts. It is only mid Dec too, so much more winter ahead, and by the sounds of it the models are at least indicating some potential in a week or so. Bring it on!!! Ravelin

To add to the "alternative weather models" theme, I'll add the "Kids Football Weather Model". My son's team have had all but one weekend game called off due to ice/snow/water on the pitches for several weeks now. This weekend is thier last scheduled game before the Xmas break, with the next scheduled game on the weekend of the 12th Jan. My prediction.....the weather will get mild and dry enough after this weekend for the pitches to become playable, but will then deteriorate in time for them to be unplayable again by 12th Jan. Ravelin

And here's the weather forecast from Dyce..............Yuk! That's about all I can say for it. Very wet, very windy, very horrible. Let hope at least that the ski resorts get a good dump of snow to see them through past Xmas, when they can get another lot to top off the pistes and tempt me to dig my skis out of the attic. Ravelin

Having just done the school run I can say that it was a bloody cold wait outside the school. Just glad there was no wind. Now that we've resigned ourselves to a milder period I'm going to embrace it. I could do with a milder spell to warm up, get out for some runs, get rid of the remnants of solid ice on the roads and paths etc. I do not, I repeat do no, want to see any more snow just yet please. Ravelin (Do you think the reverse psychology will work? Does Mother Nature respond to it?)

Well it's now 12:30 in Dyce and still well below freezing. The cars in the carpark still have frost on thier roofs, even the ones in full sun. Ravelin

The car thermomenter flipped between -6C and -7C pretty much all the way from Kemnay until Blackburn at around 8am this morning. Only got up to the dizzy heights of -5C by the time I arrived in Dyce. That's the coldest I've seen it so far this winter. Lovely clear bright morning.

Bennachie Watch - A gorgeous pale pink this morning. Other than that nothing remarkable in our neck of the woods. Lighter frost than yesterday and currently broken cloud, blue sky and virtually no wind. Actually, sitting in work looking out is torture as it'd probably be a great day to climb a hill. Ravelin

A chilly start to the day in Kemnay this morning. A nice covering of frost on the car, but the nice easy stuff to scrape thankfully, not the nasty frozen on ice. There's still snow on the ground where it's been deepest and/or shaded and and thick ice too. In fact the ice on the local park was lethal this morning, both on the paths and in the grass, and seems to have gained a huge degree of slippiness since yesterday. Bennachie looked magnificent in the sun this morning. Bright white and it may just be my imagination but it looks like it may have gained a fresh coat of snow yesterday at some point. It'll be a pity if the predicted mild, rainy weekend washes it all away. Ravelin

Here 3 of the photos I took yesterday up on Bennachie. Not fantastic quality as they were taken on my phone but they are suitablely snowy. Doubt there will be quite as much snow up there today what with a mild and wet overnight period since. https://forum.netweather.tv/gallery/image/16809-towards-oxen-craig-again/ https://forum.netweather.tv/gallery/image/16808-mither-tap/ https://forum.netweather.tv/gallery/image/16807-towards-oxen-craig/ The snow in my garden has just about gone today. So much so that now I'd probably prefer it all to go ready for a nice fresh blanket. Ravelin