Report 5: 28/12/10
Happy Christmas,
Now that the waist belt has now been moved out a few notches and all those family commitments have been met –it’s maybe time to head for the hills.
From the comments in our Christmas cards there are obviously a good few folk thinking we are still up to our necks in snow. Seeing the reports in the media it’s easy to see why. Conditions couldn’t be further from the truth low down. Here in Strathspey we have no more than a couple on inches. The last heavy snowfall was 4 weeks ago, all of which disappeared in a subsequent thaw at low levels. The main feature of the weather over the last week has been the extreme temperatures – the lowest being -20.1 with a common high being around – 10. There have been some heavy localized showers in some areas but not here in the N. Cairngorms and with a little scientific understanding one is able to cut through the image that has been created by the poor “broad brush” reporting style of the media.
There is a certainly element of truth in the saying “it’s too cold to snow”. Cold air generally has a much reduced ability to hold moisture – obviously a necessary requirement to create snow. Due to the dominance of high pressure systems, the reason for lots of snow in the high polar regions is more down to the fact it doesn’t thaw rather than due to the quantity of snow fall.
The intense localised showers that were effecting Aberdeenshire, the Highlands north of Inverness, Northern Ireland, etc were as a result of the large contrast as the very cold air passed south over a relatively warm sea. The low level air was warmed and moistened creating an unstable airflow which subsequently rose to great height creating the intense showers. Once the air had moved inland the source of the moisture (i.e. sea) was removed and so the showers dried up relatively quickly. Combined with the fact, here in Strathspey, we’re in the rain shadow of the mountains to the north has meant we have had little snow. This was all very evident from the BBC/Met Office radar with the vast majority of the intense showers remaining over the sea. The wide spread heavier snowfall has been progressively much further south as the “polar front” (i.e. track of the lows and their associated fronts) has moved south. I would urge folks to check the media reports against the met office radar to get a true picture of weather events.
We are now undergoing a very slow thaw at low levels. The temperature has yet to get above +1 in the last 24 hrs. The roads are generally all black. The weekend before Christmas saw a total of 3000 people take to the Cairngorm ski area with excellent conditions. There has been light snowfall and drifting on S winds. With the very hard frosts it’s no surprise that hoar frost developed and with it now being buried under drifted snow it has created an avalanche risk. Generally the snow conditions are very good.
There is a fare amount of variation in the various mtn forecasts with some predicting some heavy snow for the high tops for tomorrow. We shall see.
We still have places for the new year period at Fraoch Lodge.
Regards and safe climbing,
Andy
