The cold weather which first swept across Scotland several days before Christmas is still lingering on and will last into the first week, at least, of the new year.
During the last few weeks some very low minima have been recorded. The lowest temperature that I have spotted was -16C, which has been reported several times and in a few different locations. On the night of the 22nd Tulloch Bridge near Fort William plummeted to -16C, followed by Altnaharra during the early hours of Christmas morning. A low of -16C was also recorded near Stirling on the night of the 28th after heavy snowfall followed again by another -16C night on the 29th at Altnaharra.
Even our biggest cities have managed to push into double figures below freezing with Glasgow reporting a low of -10C during the early hours of the 23rd and Edinburgh had a very chilly start to Christmas Eve with a temperature around -12C.
The end of the second week of the month was chilly across most parts but this current sustained cold spell started around the 18th as that's when the temperatures were widely below freezing by night and have been ever since. That means that the severe cold spell has lasted two weeks come the 1st of January - quite rare when you think back to recent winters.
Almost everywhere has seen some snow at least during the last fortnight, some parts have seen it come and go, and some have had it lying on the ground for days. Aviemore has had lying snow since the 19th when 4cms was recorded. The snow became deeper by the day with 27cms by Christmas afternoon. The snow has thawed a little, but there was still 22cms on the 30th.
Glasgow Bishopton has reported lying snow since the 23rd, albeit just a few cms, with a peak of 5cms on the 27th and 29th of the month. Most of the country woke up to lying snow on Christmas Day with 13cms lying at Eskdalemuir in Dumfries and Galloway, 5cms in Edinburgh and at Lerwick. Fresh snow was falling on Christmas morning in Edinburgh and Glasgow giving the two cities an official White Christmas.
The cold conditions are set to continue for the next week and perhaps onwards with some very low temperatures again in places. It's very possible that the temperatures could drop to -20C or maybe even below in a few spots.
Heavy snow will effect many northern and eastern parts of the country bringing several cms of snow in places and I believe that we could see quite a lot of disruption due to this. There will be widespread ice and roads are likely to be closed at times over the next week or so.
With the severe cold continuing people should protect their pipes from freezing and keep an eye on elderly people who might not be able to go out in the icy weather for their essentials. It would be a good time to get the tyres on the car checked as well to make sure you have enough grip on the roads. I went to get mine done today and the garage had run out of certain tyres as a lot of people have been going in after having lost control of their cars on the ice.
There have been a few avalanches on the 30th and unfortunately this has cost lives. There is an RAF mountain rescue team which has been based near Newtonmore in a bothy to ensure a quick response to any mountain incident involving climbers. Most of the mountains - especially those in the northeast will experience some heavy falls of snow over the next week and this could cause more problems. Climbers should be fully aware of the dangers that are posed by the severe cold and copious amounts of snowfall which could lead to some very dangerous conditions.
The end of this decade and the start of the new one will certainly be remembered for being extremely cold and snowy, but we'll need to wait and see whether the whole of this winter ends up colder than average.
Whatever you're doing during this time make sure you stay warm, enjoy the snow and have a fantastic New Year!
