Scotland - North 2007

[Birdie Wife]

The Halladale river is well iced up now, temps here have barely gone above 3 or 4 and well below freezing at night (usually around -10 to -15degC). I was watching the formation of pancake ice near the bank the other morning, very odd to see! Find the same in the Arctic, it's one of the precursors to major ice sheets.

[Nicos]

Had to google pancake ice- never heard of it...

http://weblog.greenpeace.org/oceande...li_089_500.jpg

Cripes!!!must be cold!

[sewer rat]

We have now had three days of really hard nights - between -7 and -5 with temops barely reaching +2 during the day - freezing fog all day today too. Didn't see it myself but there is a little bay on the firth near one of my customers and he swears it started to freeze over yesterday (needs to be 'kin cold to freeze seawater !!)
Forecast to stay this way til at leat Christmas Eve, when no doubbt it will absolutely tip it with rain all day, in time for a very muddy Christmas!

[Nicos]

is this unusually cold Rat???

[JennieAtkinson]

It was pretty windy last night (at least gale force), winds from the south with rain and hail, which hit the south facing windows with an alarming sound in the middle of the night. But calmer this morning and a fair bit of blue sky and as I type the sun has just come out, although it is very low in the sky.

There was talk of a white Christmas here last week but temp at the moment is about 7 - but if the skies clear we might get a good frost tonight.

[sewer rat]

Jennie
I had the same sort of breeze as you did, with the thaw too. However, all this did was make the roads wet and then the temp plummeted and we had black ice everywhere. Loads of crashes and bumps on all our wee back roads !
I'm now in Glasgow, where it is considerably milder and wetter.

Nicos
In answer to your question - not really I suppose, but for the last couple or three years, it has been so mild that the winter frosts and snows don't usually start 'til February time, so to have a week of really hard frosts just now is not unpleasant - just an embuggerance when you're trying to lift frozen veg from frozen ground - especially leeks and swedes.

[Birdie Wife]

Had to google pancake ice- never heard of it...

http://weblog.greenpeace.org/oceande...li_089_500.jpg

Cripes!!!must be cold!

Similar, but this stuff had rounded edges because of the river current swirling it round in a sort of enclosed space. I didn't have a camera with me at the time, but the person I was waiting for did - I'll ask her if I can share her photos. I took some pics of the burn out the back of our house for you (day before Christmas Eve) - if the waterfalls look unusually crisp it's not because the picture was taken in a micro-second, it's just that the waterfalls are frozen!

[JennieAtkinson]

Wow! Fantastic pics BW.

Very VERY windy here during the night. Tried to check the windspeed on the Fair Isle weather site and its not showing any info at all - hope it hasn't blown away (the wind measuring device, not Fair isle!). Chilly, but thats mainly because our heating packed up this morning. Poor husband still up to his armpits in the boiler trying to get it going.

[sewer rat]

Back in Tain where I belong today. Cold and very wet - house is still freezing - as we switched everything off on the 23rd when we left - methinks boiler will be on all night to bring the house back up to operating temperature.
Has been very windy here too apparently. Will know better tomorrow when Iona and myself go and check on the crops and make a round of veg box deliveries - hope my leeks aren't still frozen in the ground.

[sewer rat]

It's been raining for last 36 hours but we are forecast to have heavy-ish snowfall tonight. Can hardly wait

[JennieAtkinson]

Been blowing a gale and lashing rain here for the last 48 hours. Managed to poke my nose out of the door for a (very) brief walk with Aimee (the dog), but even she didn't have her heart in it.

Feeling pretty cold today as well. A bit of snow forecast here as well SR, but I think you are going to get most of it!

[diana]

blowing a gale here snow and sleet and rain so the dog can take himself for a walk today (how cruel) more snow forecast for tonight but seems it is not going to last to long, ferries still running at the moment but could be cancelled anytime, thank god for the island shop.

[JennieAtkinson]

Cold cold day but no snow. Wind blowing F8/F9 for 48 hours now. We had no boat from Aberdeen last night due to the weather (would have been the first with freight since Christmas) and no boat sailed either from Aberdeen or Lerwick tonight. Radio Shetland tonight indicated that unless the forecast changes it doesn't look as though we are going to get a boat until Monday! Shops are pretty empty already, so its down to the store cupboard methings. Thank heavens for the frozen veg and the cabbage still in the ground.

[sewer rat]

Cold here too Jennie, cold and windy but no snow - yet ! I heard them sayin on Radio Scotland that the initial ferry problems weren't due to the weather but to extreme low tides at Aberdeen ?
Hope yer boat comes in soon though !

[smallblueplanet]

Cold here too Jennie, cold and windy but no snow - yet ! I heard them sayin on Radio Scotland that the initial ferry problems weren't due to the weather but to extreme low tides at Aberdeen?

Are they saying it was due to the 'wrong type of sea'???!