Well were are coming to the end of November 08 and here in Scotland we are looking at forecasts showing the 3rd noteable arctic blast! The first was in October, but multiple forecast sites are now prediciting more snow and cold temperature for the beginning of December! This has been quite a remarkable start to the winter, perhaps the waxwings were right?

Hopefully we’ll see some snow in glasgow this time!

If you get tired of never seeing any snow, then there are places not too far away where you will get pretty much garuanteed snow after christmas, just check out this example of swedish snow fall, this took only a few hours to accumulate!

After last night’s low of -5Celcius, freezing fog formed and lingered around for a good part of the morning, especially in dips and valleys wehre the sun hadn’t quite reached.

First of all, you may be thinking what is the difference between mist and fog? Well they are both made up from water droplets, the main difference being that fog is much denser than mist, and hence has worse effect on visibility when its bad.

Freezing fog, is where the water droplets cool below freezing point, but don’t freeze. Don’t ask me how this is possible, thats just what happens! A noteable effect of freezing fog are the ice formations it leaves behind on surfaces like windscreens and lamposts. This distinctive ice formation is called “rime” and looks quite streaky and rough to touch leaving almost “feather like” patterns.

The photo was taken beneath the Whitecard viaduct in Glagsow. As you can see there is remarkably reduced visibilty beyond about 300 metres. This was taken at 9am and the fog lingered around until about lunch time.

Other types of fog you get are Advection, Radiation Fog. I will explain these one soon.

Last night saw the temperature drop to minus 5 celcius in Glasgow. Definetly the coldest night so far this season. The cars and grass are covered in a very thick layer of frost and ice, which is sparkling rather nicely in the early morning sunshine. There is also the remanents of some Fog floating around, but I’d imagine that will disapear quickly when the sun hits it.