I think we need one of these threads. A memorable spell of weather on the way. Its pretty unusual to get widespread snow fall to lower levels at the end of April (even if we are only talking northern Scotland!). What is even more unusual is to get an extended period of cold. In winter the angle of attack in a cold airmass can be anything from westerly to south easterly, even a little more than that. But at this time of year a long cold spell requires precision, and exactly the right synoptics to deliver. It looks like this is going to happen.

Temperatures and northern/hill snow will be the big stories, -5 or -6C even quite far south as the sun rises is definitely possible. I think we have a good chance of breaking a daily minimum record on at least one day, and the strongest of the cold which is due next Friday coincides with the start of may so this will be the best opportunity in a while to break the all time may record of -9.4C. And I wouldn't rule out seeing snow even further south.

As always with these threads, when I am talking about records I am talking about potential. Of all the threads I have made like this I wonder if there have been any that actually have broken a record. Nevertheless even if the probability of records being broken is low, I can say its the best window of opportunity we will see in years if not decades.

I will be surprised if I see an air frost in my garden.   Mind, the way it is looking, I will be surprised if I see any measureable rain!   Temps down here do look like being slightly below average, which will feel much colder after the recent weeks of warmth.

http://www.cairngormmountain.org/webcam/

2C in Stornoway at the moment with snow showers. Pretty cold for end of April!

The average April temp for Stornoway is 6c, so it's not exceptional by any means. Chilly, yes, but not really noteworthy. 

We could get bone-chilling maxes of 13c IMBY this week. In all seriousness, that's pretty cack, but again, not miles off the April average. 

As always the cold spell seems to have downgraded

Such a pity.

The hebridies even have snow on the ground though.

Down to 2.9C with sleet here. Exceptionally cold for late April and far more noteworthy than the recent warm temperatures which were nothing out of the ordinary for April.

Cloudless skies, warm and sunny.  A very fine spring day




Oops, wrong thread

I'm only merely getting the overcast and drizzle at this end - that much was to be expected at least - but currently at 10.6 C, it is feeling much colder than it really needs to be and the dampness isn't helping much despite calm winds. I've had to turn the heating back on again to take the chill out indoors.

Are you testing me satan! 

Anybody south of Hadrians Wall who's had to put their heating back on needs to have a good, strong word with themselves 

Ian. 

Warm here in the sunshine. Cooler when it goes behind the patchy cloud. Slight breeze. 

I Said strong word to myself... Bluddey chilly with north wind blowing across the valley and it switched its self on.

It's been snowing steadily here (couple of miles W of Insch @500' ASL).  There's around 2" accumulated so far, but it's very wet, almost slush in places so the amount of water is equivalent to significantly deeper "normal" snow.   What a pain!   Let's hope it doesn't continue.

Tony S