scotland Scotland Regional Weather Discussion 27/01/14

[SW Saltire]

Snowing heavy in east Northern Ireland now. Has been last hr. I'm bout 90+ metres ASL

Very heavy rain/sleet here so looks good further north and where the heaviest precipitation hits in a few hours

[November13]

Snow lying on some N Eire web cams.

[rob4al]

Rain so far at my location (92m)

[SW Saltire]

Yeah, I should point out I'm 15m asl haha. So hence my surprise at me getting wet snow and most of this forum not surpassing that

[rob4al]

Oh well I stayed up to 2am waiting for the front to arrive and after giving some snow to Ireland when it arrived here in North Lanarkshire it broke up and what fell from the sky was light.... yes rain! I thought when it arrived the temperature would fall but it actually rose and is now 5c. It seems we can't win at all this winter. Anyway off to bed. I have a lot of explaining to do in the morning as I insured all my local Facebook buddies that they would wake up to a blanket of snow. 

[Highland Snow]

Temperature started to rise at 02.00 from 2.7C/1.9C to a maximum of 5.2C/4.3C at 03.50 and then fell back quickly to 4.0C/1.9C at 04.05. Wind really howling outside atm.

[101_North]

OK..... So the non event I suspected. Looks OK further north maybe? Precipitation looks like it missed here - which to be fair is what was forecast. 

[Blizzardo]

Had some quite heavy snow there for around an hour. Temperature dropped from 3.9c/2.2c to 1.4c/0.4c. Big flakes swirling around in a gusty wind as it passed through. Has left a covering of snow although it's slushy on the road.

[Highland Snow]

Now 2.4C/-0.2C so still very marginal even for wet snow. Starry sky.

[SW Saltire]

The heavy rain turned to hailstones as they woke me up a couple of hours ago. They have left a covering on some surfaces. So it does look likes it has briefly snowed... Temperature 2.5c - so not that great for the next front due to arrive in half an hour, still hoping I can see some falling snow and with the partially frozen surfaces I might, just might, lie

[mistyqueen]

Well, whaddya know? We have actually had some snow! Not a lot, but enough to give a wee white blanket. It's still too dark to see exactly how much has fallen, but I'd say maybe a couple of cm's. It'll either get blown away by the wind or washed away by the incoming rain, but at least I can say we had some snow here this winter!

[CoastRainbow]

Looks like it has been snowing. Not very much ! But for this winter I will take it

[Scottish-Irish Skier]

Aye, 1/2 cm of snow lying here.

 

0.0 C.

[101_North]

Sums it up yet again really :-D 

 

http://www.eastsidecottages.co.uk/webcam/

 

On a positive note it's a pretty nice morning. 

[lorenzo]

Nae Snaw here,nice blue skies this morning though to start the day.

 

Hopefully the next band tracking through will deliver for folks. The mountains have had a proper pasting, great to read of oor wee country having the best skiing in Europe.

 

Good to see damians post above provide some balance to the doom and gloom and malaise of the model thread, when we do have the opportunity to benefit from any changed stratospheric profile, which confidence remains low about even where the 10hPa charts for temp. on Meteociel look so enticing.

 

Off to tynecastle today for a couple of beers and to enjoy the atmosphere of the diddy cup semi-final. 

[November13]

He haw this is the worst winter since the late 80s.Feb and no lying snow I give up.

[damianslaw]

Thanks for sharing your local insight

Ok, so as far back as I can remember... 2003-05 very little snow from what I remember, I doubt any of those years reached a four inch covering at any point.

2006 - nope, 2007 - no snow at all I think, 2008 - cold second half but no snow apart from a covering in early February so barely 1 inch deep. 2009- cold but many showers frustratingly missed us yet again, 2 inches was our max depth. (I hated 2008-09 and 2009-10 here as they were so close but so useless on the snow front) 2010-11 - incredibly cold. Very little snow during December and November. Had a 2 inch covering that slowly diminished until a very heavy shower came and pushed snow cover to 10cm so YES. 2011-12 - nope although we got an incredibly heavy hail shower in late February or early March. It left a 2 inch covering everywhere. I've never experienced anything like it, it lasted 3 hours and was very localised (only about 4 miles wide) but alas that doesn't count as snow, 2012-13 definately quite a few transient 5-10 cm falls, also had a very potent NW flow that left a good covering and obviously March gave 12 inches so YES, 13-14 looking unlikely - so far one incredibly small snowfall in December before it rained.

So in summary in the last 11 winters 2 have met your criteria for a 'good' winter. A further 2 got half that figure.

Like I say my location is poor for snow and much better for warmth (achieved 29.7c in July this year, rarely doesn't get at least 25c in summer)

I realise my location isn't representative of most of Scotland but a significant part of the country doesn't have much altitude. At least most of the above winters delivered at least -5 (almost all) -10 on 4 of those 11 winters and December 2010 gave me -16. Whereas, this winter..... Wait for

it....... -2 WOW and the next lowest minimum -0.5 = truly horrendous almost unprecedented.

So save to say it's been incredibly poor, no sun at all, I have had literally 6 air frosts which is atrocious (two of those in the last 3 days)

 

I take your point. SW Scotland isn't especially well placed for frequent snow, compared to the NE half of Scotland, but away from the southern and western coastal areas, inland Galloway has appreciable heights and can collect a fair bit of snow.

 

Dumfries and Solway Firth area is a bit of a snow shield, being low lying and very sheltered from northerly and easterly winds. Also it doesn't benefit from orographic uplift conditions - i.e. when air is cooled and forced over a range of higher ground -  central and eastern Cumbria do much better on this score and are also more exposed to easterly and northeasterly blasts compared to Dumfries-Carlisle area. Cold air can however collect for long periods in the Dumfries and Carlisle area - freezing fog can be very difficult to shift, so under a slack northerly or easterly airstream these areas can remain sub freezing for long periods with little wind to stir the atmosphere. Dec 2010 brought such conditions.

 

What northerlies often do produce is a ridge behind them and if this settles in place for a day or two, even as late as March it brings very low dewpoints and cold surface pool then there is a strong chance frontal activity will produce snow for SW Scotland if it becomes slow moving with a S/SE flow. Early Feb 96 showed a classic case of a slow stalling front crashing into a cold pool.

 

NW snow blasts are very rare - hard to achieve such synoptics but can deliver snow to SW Scotland in March.

[blitzen]

Nothing, nowt, nada, zilch! it didn't even rain! Nice blue skies this morning though. 2.4c/-1.6c/SW.

[Hawesy]

Morning all, what's this.....SUNSHINE....forget snow that's made my weekend! ;-) Currently 3c in Crail.

 

Interesting posts from SW Saltire...if it helps ease the pain there's always someone in an equally or less snowprone location than you...and that would be me. As  always in Scotland when it comes to wintry conditions proximity to the sea and elevation are the main players. Looking at LS's list of snow events in recent years (Freuchie is not that far away) either they didn't produce snow here at all or in greatly reduced amounts. The last time I had 1cm of snow on the ground was Dec 2010. Quite a few dustings last winter but none were more than a dusting/slushy coating. If I see no lying snow this winter then 4 out of the last 8 will have been entirely without lying snow. Deepest snowfall I've recorded was 11cm (just over 4") in Feb 2009.

 

Speaking to locals who've been here a long time I'd say it's quite normal for there to be no lying snow in a winter in Crail. Probably around 30-50% of the time. I've been incredibly lucky to be here for two outstanding winters in terms of duration of lying snow (2009-10 and Nov/Dec 2010). My only remaining goal is to see one really heavy snowfall (6" or more). It can happen of course but I may be waiting a long time!

 

I used to think Glasgow was relatively snowless in Scottish terms but moving here from there has put that into perspective. However the fact I'm in one of the sunniest and driest parts of Scotland makes up for it!

[Northernlights]

Sunny cold (2c) and windy this morning  and ground still dry.

[Hairy Celt]

Grey, windy, dull & almost mild . No snow, but at least no rain either.

[Big Innes Madori]

Nothing, nowt, nada, zilch! it didn't even rain! Nice blue skies this morning though. 2.4c/-1.6c/SW.

Same here Blitzy.

Even up here this poor excuse of a winter has only given us one brief covering (1/2" - 2hrs - gone!)  of snaw which I think was a Sunday evening early - mid December.

 

I have nivur known such a Snawless winter in A' mah puff.

Fkn American Winter has & still is killing oor's  (Bassas  )

 

 

Edit.

At least our Ski Resorts are doing well 

 

 

 

Big Snaw Starved Innes 

Edited February 1, 2014 by Big Innes Madori

[Northernlights]

Interesting item for sale here.  http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Funicular-Railway-/131106658086. Design parameters not coping with this years snowfall!!!!!

[edo]

Front looking very broken up and looks like Glasgow has sliced it in 2....no idea of temp but feels very pleasant with blue skies so thank fook never promised kids snaw...

[Ross Andrew Hemphill]

Snowed overnight here, left a covering. Has been snowing for the past 40mins but has turned a little sleety