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!

Its hard to forecast snow, but sometimes nature can give us some clues as to whats around the corner.

For example the early, arrival of large flocks of Waxwings (in the 100s) and the Feildfairs (in the 1000s) can signify theonset of a colder winter, since they have come from Scandinavia where it is usually colder than it is in the UK. It’s not just a local way of thought about the arrival of the Waxwing to these parts, just have a look at the BBC’s post from 2003, when london endured the worst snow fall during that winter for 12 years. That year the winter was preceeded by an influx of these scandinavian birds which retreat to these parts to avoid the bitterly cold winters in the more notherly regions.

Also, earlier on in the autumn stags were starting the rut, which is also seen as a sign an early onset to winter.

With this in mind and my previous posts about the UK generally being cooler this year it adds weight to my predictions for a more snowy, cooler, and possibly more arctic winter than has been seen recently.

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.