Spindrift2017

BBC iPlayer - Scotlands Weather – Our Changing Seasons - Series 1: Episode 2 WWW.BBC.CO.UK A look back at Scotlands recent extreme winter weather. A programme that might be of some interest, although I don’t think it contained much that most people on here don’t already know! The sections with the Braemar MRT and also the guy behind the website below were quite interesting. BRAEMAR AND BALLATER WEATHER PAGE - HOME BRAEMARWEATHER.CO.UK braemar weather

The lowest official overall minimum, and lowest minimum for Scotland, seems to have been -14.0 at Dalwhinnie on 17 January. Around the same time, some unofficial/amateur weather stations in the same general area (northern Perthshire/southern Inverness-shire) recorded lows below -15 (Blair Atholl sticks in the mind as having the lowest one I saw - around -15.5 or so, I think). The northerly in early February also produced a few double-digit negative lows in northern Scotland, with Althaharra getting down to -13.8 on the 8th. The December low was -12.5 at Altnaharra on the 3rd. The official figures are taken from the monthly summaries here: Climate summaries WWW.METOFFICE.GOV.UK Overview of weather across the UK for previous months, seasons and years

Another big squall with torrential hail here - second of the evening and there was a hail shower this afternoon too.

A wee walk in the Lowther Hills, South Lanarkshire in late morning/early afternoon. Looks benign in the photos but there was a constant blustery cold wind that required a few layers to be donned. Some showers passing through produced atmospheric conditions and, eventually, a rainbow. During mild spells in many winters these hills still retain patches and wreaths of snow where drifts have built up but there was nothing to be seen at all today, even on N/E-facing slopes. Shows how what snow there has been this year has largely been in northern Scotland.

Not too much to report from the storm aftermath, fortunately. All I really have to offer today is a photo of a rainbow in the distance, as a shower passed to the north, somewhere in Lanarkshire… I should probably point out that this isn’t a public road, although some public roads aren’t in much better condition. The rainbow faded pretty quickly.

Utter deluge of hail when driving through Hamilton 15/20 minutes ago - great sheets of it driven in on the wind with the temperature dropping sharply to 2.5C (according to car dashboard display). A few small trees and large branches down and a collapsed security fence in evidence but saw no damage more severe than that.

Skived off for a walk near Leadhills this afternoon under brilliant blue skies. In contrast to the scenes of deep snow up north, the small amounts of snow are mostly confined to north-facing slopes, so the following photos might appeal more to frost enthusiasts (if there is such a thing) rather than snow lovers. A good crisp wintry feel though, and since a bit of wind was getting up it was a bit bracing to say the least on the higher areas, and I had to get the gloves back on rather quickly after some photos! Some of the more sluggish burns etc. were partially frozen, but it hasn’t been cold enough to freeze faster-flowing watercourses. Incidentally, it got down to either -8.2 or -8.8 here in Motherwell last night, depending on which local weather station you believe! The cold air can get quite well established in the Clyde valley after a few days of low temperatures. Pretty sure it was the coldest night here since it nudged just below -10 in December 2022.

Got quite heavy for a minute or two there. Seems to be a line of showers that have sneaked through from a north-westish direction.

Yes, air cools and precipitation intensifies as it is forced up over mountains, and becomes drier and less cold as it descends on to lower ground. Believe it or not much of the central belt is in a “rain shadow” (or “snow shadow”) as far as precipitation from the north is concerned (there’s definitely no such shadow from a westerly direction!) if the northerly flow is strong enough, the snow can sometimes pep up again over the Southern Uplands of Scotland or the Pennines, annoyingly. This explains it quite well (albeit in a US context). How Do Mountains Affect Precipitation? - DTN WWW.DTN.COM How Do Mountains Affect Precipitation? - DTN

Had a quick jaunt up Dunsyre Hill, a steep wee hill a few miles north of Biggar, this afternoon. Nice views in the low winter sun, although the start of the way up, through a gently sloping field, was a complete and utter mudbath churned up by farm vehicles. A good hard frost would’ve improved that part no end. Will these scenes be white with snow in a few days though? That’s the question!

Seems consistent with the BBC TV forecast I just saw, which was taking Tuesday’s feature more across Northern Ireland and Cumbria.

Great photos. Seems to have been quite a pronounced temperature inversion. The South Cairngorms area avalanche forecaster’s blog today (linked below) mentions a temperature of -8 at Braemar but +6 on the high tops. Also contains a bonus panorama photo from the top of Glas Maol. Southern Cairngorms Blog & Mountain Info » Sun, firm snow and the odd unstable pocket. SCAIRNGORMSBLOG.SAIS.GOV.UK

Looks like an interesting spell of weather watching coming up! First post of the winter from me - things have been a bit hectic. Nice to see a few frosts again recently. Earlier today I spotted this ‘hair ice’ in Calderglen Country Park, East Kilbride. Apparently the presence of the a certain fungus in moist rotten wood causes, in the presence of moist air with a temperature just below 0C, water pushed out of the wood to freeze into forms that resemble strands of hair. Hair Ice WWW.METOFFICE.GOV.UK Hair ice is a rare type of ice formation where the presence of a particular fungus in rotting wood produces thin strands of ice which resemble hair or candy floss.

The Met Office has the highest March minimum for Scotland at 12.7C (Kinloss in 2021 and Benmore, Argyll in 1948, on the 9th!) - I think the latter is the Benmore Botanic Gardens on the Cowal Peninsula, with its mild, very maritime climate. The overall record for the UK is 14.2C in 1990 at Arthog in North Wales. Changing the options on here gives a variety of different figures for UK climate extremes: UK climate extremes WWW.METOFFICE.GOV.UK UK climate extremes

The “golf ball” is still there - it’s in the distance in the middle top image and the ones in the bottom row - clearer if you enlarge them. I did wonder whether the clouds might be contrails at the time, but when I looked at the photos I managed to convince myself they were natural clouds!

Took a walk round some of the Lowther Hills near Wanlockhead yesterday – was a sparkling spring day with just a dusting of snow higher up. Some interesting fair-weather clouds in the last photo, with some appearing vertical rather than horizontal (possibly not the meterologically correct term!). Back to grotty grey drizzle (and work) today!

In the lower parts of Lanarkshire, the thin covering of snow on the ground started to melt as soon as the precipitation lost its intensity, as it was only the temperature dropping in the heavy bursts that made it lie at all. Once the sun came out in the afternoon, it saw to most of the few remnants pretty quickly. Nice view of a snowy Tinto in the distance though. The zoomed image shows the thinness of a lot of its snow cover mind you.

Yeah, looking quite a bit whiter than that here already. Might see if I can sneak away from slaving in my "office" for a while later, before it disappears!

Similar here (to Lanark) - flakes blowing around in the breeze.

My first thought when I saw that they’d removed the warning this morning, after having it on for days, was ‘I bet they end up re-adding this at the last minute’! Only a flurry here so far, mind you.

Was down at Douglas on Saturday with the thaw well established, and I noticed this pattern of parallel lines of slush in one of the lochs/ponds. Any theories on what caused this, or are there just ropes or something under the water and I'm being a bit dim?

Thanks for the kind comments. I went for a walk by the Clyde at Bothwell Castle yesterday afternoon – no snow, but hard frost and sections of the Clyde are frozen. The first photo shows a faster-flowing bit where it's only frozen around the edges, but you'll see that its pretty much completely frozen on the big bend near the castle where it's more sluggish. It's a pity about the Heras fencing round the castle, from a photographic point of view!

Well, this is a bit more interesting than most recent starts to winter, isn't it? In the absence of anything to say that you don't already know, I thought I'd post from photos I took on Sunday, from a walk near Lesmahagow, of the famous Lanarkshire alpenglow. Who's Frida? Another one of these named storms? A visitor from Scandinavia?

Phone pic through a window!

Earlier today my mum sent me this photo of a rather strange looking lone cloud(?) that was apparently visible for 20-30 minutes between about 11pm-midnight yesterday. Anyone ever seen anything like this, or is it one for the X Files?