Scotland/Alba Regional Weather Discussion 23/04/17 onwards

[101_North]

Decent covering on the Pentlands overnight:

[Kayemill]

Some lying snow this morning which came as a bit of a surprise.

[shuggee]

Driving into Edinburgh through that lot this morning was treacherous.  Gritting teams had no chance with the switch from rain to snow.  Thankfully far less traffic with the school holidays.

[Ruzzi]

9 hours ago, Hairy Celt said:

I think our neighbour tried to get over there today in a range rover but got stuck behind the camper van in one of your pictures so gave up. Sensibly.

I got stuck there on a GPz750R many years ago - in April. Alone. Probably the most freaked out I ever got by weather on a bike, including early 80s winters on Welsh hills. The BnB just seems to go from ok to hmm I shouldn't be here to oh fk no in a couple of minutes.

An ST though, in winter...  I bet you're on Michelin PSS too...

I'm jealous tho - would have loved that in the Yeti with its winter rubber

Aye you're right, it was definitely an 'ok to an oh fk no' scenario in the space of about 3 minutes, was genuinely incredible how quickly it changed!  It was most likely that campervan your neighbour was stuck behind, although he was making more progress than I was. He was going in the opposite direction from me and I had half a thought of turning round and trying to following him down but he said I only had a few hundred meters of incline to go before it was all downhill so I pressed on. Also I didn't fancy going down all the steep gradients and hairpins that I had just struggled up, I had visions of sliding into a barrier or off the road. But yeah it was a bad call, the ST is shocking in snow, every warning light in the car was on by the time I reached the summit aswell, I did get on better though once I had turned the traction control off.

 

10 hours ago, Ross B said:

Nice photos but did you take the ST up there in January??? I went up there in May, amazing place and we had perfect weather luckily  (blue skies and 20c).I wouldn't fancy trying that road even with winter tyres in those conditions!  (I also had an ST a few years ago and it wasn't great in rain or light snow so you're a brave man! Haha ) 

Yes I sure did and without winter tyres on, and I sure won't do it again lol. Too naive as I didn't think it would be as bad as it was. I have to say, if I still had my Audi A5 Quattro, I think it would have been great fun but the ST is so poor in the snow, and once you add a steep gradient and drifting snow, it's completely useless. I knew it wouldn't be great in the snow but I would have never have bought it if I knew it was going to be that bad. This is my first winter with it so I doubt it'll be here by next winter lol. 

[snowidea]

@Ruzzi. I have to ask, what's an ST? 

[mardatha]

I was dying to ask too! I woke up (at 9.30am!) to a white world. Maybe couple inches deep and going to melt today, but its nice to see anyway. Wind was pretty noisy last night when we went to bed and rain was biblical.

[Ruzzi]

16 minutes ago, snowidea said:

@Ruzzi. I have to ask, what's an ST? 

It's a Ford Focus ST-3. Its ford's half way house between a normal Focus and the focus RS. It's a 2 litre petrol, 250bhp ... and it's no mountain goat lol

 

[mardatha]

Oh very nice! But not for those roads in that weather! lol However  you can say now I DID IT

[snowidea]

3 hours ago, Ruzzi said:

It's a Ford Focus ST-3. Its ford's half way house between a normal Focus and the focus RS. It's a 2 litre petrol, 250bhp ... and it's no mountain goat lol

 

Ahhh thanks smart looking car. 

Wet, dark and miserable here in Falkirk 

[trebor]

4 hours ago, snowidea said:

@Ruzzi. I have to ask, what's an ST? 

Sexy Transport ? 

[Northernlights]

Fine sunny day here but frost been digging in in the shade since dawn. Currently 1c

[Northern Strath]

Snow cover has a serious crust on it now, ice encasing all surfaces where it compacted, you'd be as well doing a wolf of wall st 'ludes' approach to your car.

looking forward to some snow in the next few days to aid the traction on all the local tracks, they're pretty wild, undrivable with too much of a gradient 

[Hawesy]

Looks scary NS!

Good walk over at Lunan Bay, plentiful sunshine!

 

[Hairy Celt]

4 hours ago, trebor said:

Sexy Transport ? 

Good thing it's not a diesel...

[doctormog]

I wonder if the ECM model is overdoing the cold at the weekend in parts of the Highlands, for example:

https://weather.us/model-charts/euro/4a04f59a55d47ee2f1126f484fd78c00/min-temp-2m-6h/20180107-1200z.html

[Altostratus]

13 minutes ago, doctormog said:

I wonder if the ECM model is overdoing the cold at the weekend in parts of the Highlands, for example:

https://weather.us/model-charts/euro/4a04f59a55d47ee2f1126f484fd78c00/min-temp-2m-6h/20180107-1200z.html

I guess it all hinges on whether or not the brief north easterly can deliver a decent layer of snow before the settled clear conditions takeover. Without the expansive snowcover -19C would certainly be off the table.

[doctormog]

2 minutes ago, Altostratus said:

I guess it all hinges on whether or not the brief north easterly can deliver a decent layer of snow before the settled clear conditions takeover. Without the expansive snowcover -19C would certainly be off the table.

Yes, you’re absolutely right, it just struck me as notably cold. I guess we will find out in a few days but I’d be surprised if it got that cold.

[edo]

uppers not looking too conducive for large convection activity on latest runs..... does look excellent further out....as seems the usual these days the best synoptics beyond the reliable but lots of potential...... 

 telephone boxing potential again  

Edited January 3, 2018 by edo

[Hairy Celt]

Just been getting another screen-based snow-fix, this time 'Tales of Winter: the art of snow and ice'. It's on iplayer just now, I'd recommend it apart from the rather strained arty voice-over. Most of the contributors are sound and the pieces we look at are some of the best winter pieces.

[101_North]

11 hours ago, edo said:

uppers not looking too conducive for large convection activity on latest runs..... does look excellent further out....as seems the usual these days the best synoptics beyond the reliable but lots of potential...... 

 telephone boxing potential again  

Yep - the charts for this weekend aren't looking quite as full of 'potential' as a few days ago! As usual the far reaches of the run look great! For the Edinburgh area it's looking like some sleety, rainy pish before the slight possibility of catching a rogue shower over the weekend. Does look like getting cold and frosty at least - yr.no showing -8c for my location which is complete balls! Met Office showing a more sensible few degrees below.

Not sure I'm going to miss much when I'm away although I'm not travelling to Monday morning now - apologies if that screws anyone's weekend snow 

Edited January 4, 2018 by 101_North

[Hawesy]

14 minutes ago, 101_North said:

Not sure I'm going to miss much when I'm away although I'm not travelling to Monday morning now - apologies if that screws anyone's weekend snow 

I’m in Pitlochry at the weekend. Fortunately we don’t have any thread contributors (that I’m aware of) from that neck of the woods because you can bet there’ll be no snow. 

He won’t thank me for saying it but I think @CatchMyDrift is in a good spot for catching (ahem) snow showers on Saturday.

[101_North]

Shame this is over a week away and therefore complete nonsense!

[Guest]

The Prozac thread is not a nice place to be this morning.. its all gone tits up no wait its fine no hang on its not going to be cold enough for snow in London wait till the 12z gfs wait for the ENS (what ever they are) Perb 13 is a cracker and god only knows what the Met office update will bring..

[edo]

so true @More Snowthat thread is a joke today..... there are some real weird people in there...... i love weather, i love snow and i love speaking to like minded people in here but there are some bat 5h1t crazy guys in the model thread..... i think they believe the models are living beings intent on upsetting them.....

uppers just about enough to produce for weekend... if there is strong enough convection im confident some decent showers could make it here and will be snow.... 

some of the sun night temps looking bitterly cold and not good news for first day back at schook fir the kids.... no doubts some boilers be failing as they fire back up after the break.   

Edited January 4, 2018 by edo

[Guest]

It should come with a public health warning at the start of each new thread. I love my snaw and yes I want another 2010 or 1996 but those outbreaks just don't happen as often as most in there want them. they seem to have very short memories of the last few winters mild rain festivals and most wouldn't cope with another 2010 anyways, just look at Stanstead last week after a dusting and the A14 closed due to a few inches of snow and can you just imagen the carnage down south if  temps dipped to -15c they would all soon be moaning about the cost of heating etc and be wanting Knocker and Sidney to bring in some mild south westerlies...