On Weather & Climate Through the Eyes of Mark Vogan
WEATHER WARNING!
HEAVY SNOW TO PROGRESS IN OFF THE NORTH SEA THROUGH TONIGHT AND SPREADING FROM DUNDEE, PERTH DOWN INTO EDINBURGH AND ACROSS THROUGH THE M8 CORRIDOR AND INTO THE GLASGOW AREA, A FURTHER 1-3 INCHES IS POSSIBLE AND ICING WITH BECOME MORE OF AN ISSUE AS TEMPS BECOME COLDER TONIGHT.
Here was the scene as I travelled eastbounded along the M8 in Glasgow around 6.30am just as yet another long, tiring, hazerdous and stressful rush hour was commencing. BBC Radio Scotland was playing in the background, just listen to the trouble this morning's snow created across the nations transport network. Also Judith Ralston spoke about the day's weather ahead!
GREAT BRITAIN LIKELY ENDURING ONE OF WORST NOVEMBER ARCTIC OUTBREAKS IN LIVING MEMORY
Where it's not snowing and causing the repeated shutdown of the A9 and M90, it's bloody cold... for November!
-16C may turn out mild compared with what may in fact challenge a UK record for cold in coming nights when all the skies clear out and Scotland turns into one giant freezer!
Abandoned: A car almost blends into the background at Glenagles in Perthshire
Image Courtesy of The Daily Mail
IMPRESSIVE FACT
Inverness set a record for the month of November this morning when the low plummeted to -14C (7 degrees)
Another morning, another heavy band of snow pushes across the country and another treacherous, long and frustrating rush hour! This video I captured on the M74 in North Lanarkshire near Bothwell services at 6.40am this morning.
Cancelled: Commuters arriving at East Croydon Station had to be monitored by police officers to prevent dangerous overcrowding (Image from Daily Mail)
Gridlock: Severe delays were experienced by motorists near Junction 10 of the M25 in Surrey (Image from Daily Mail)
Sorry, no trains tonight: Commuters left with travel nightmare as lines shut down in the snow . . . and the worst is still to come
The Daily Mail
Snow in London as U.K. Cold Wave Bites
AccuWeather News
Travel disruption as snow spreads across UK
BBC
Colder than Reykjavik: UK set for more snow as temperatures drop to -1C
The Guardian
Today's Weather across America
From AccuWeather
Snow, Rain, Wind from Latest Northwest Storm
AccuWeather
A Snowier Scenario for Chicago, Much of Midwest
AccuWeather
Flooding Threat, Slower Travel in East through Wednesday
AccuWeather
Weather Talk
By Mark Vogan
Poor driving conditions on the M8 in Glasgow this morning!
Deep snow lying in my back garden this afternoon!
THIS SECTION EXPLAINS WHY IT'S SO COLD ACROSS SCOTLAND!
As Arctic High moves in, temperatures will drop everywhere!
-10C for towns and cities of the Central Belt as well as Dumfries and Inverness, -25C is possible over the Highlands Wednesday and/or Thursday night!
With Altnaharra in the northwest Highlands already down to -11.5C (11 degrees), Aviemore at -7.8C (18 degrees) and even here at my house -3C (26 degrees) as of 4pm this evening, skies are clear and these chilly numbers continue to fall thanks to clear skies. Impressively, however, these numbers are tumbling away despite a wind blowing briskly out of the northeast. Unfortunately due to the fact these winds are blowing across the North Sea, their collecting moisture and indeed this is why we're seeing regular snow showers moving through the Central Belt and with some of those showers heavy and persistent, we're seeing further accummulations.
HIGH PRESSURE TRANSPORTS IN, EVEN COLDER AIR, RAISES OUR CHANCES OF -20s FOR THE HIGHLANDS -10s FOR THE LOWLANDS
Those winds however are expected to lighten up as the upper-levels of the atmosphere, those steering winds which are driving those northeasterlies and firing the snowshowers in persistently will begin to alter as higher pressure starts to move in from Scandinavia.
What that means is basically, rather than frigid winds blowing literally from the frozen wastes of interior Scandinavia and chilling us here in the UK, the actual air mass itself will move towards us, therefore even colder days and nights will be in the offing for everyone..
Though winds will be lighter and therefore there will be less of a truely brutal windchill like we're seeing now everywhere and much worse over the Highland communities due to the fact that highs are not warming above -4 to -6C, the air will become colder despite those winds relaxing. When colder air aloft crosses over an area of widespread snowcover and allows skies to clear the snow acts like a giant reflector of heat. Any heat brought in from the sun is instantly reflected back to space by the snowcover, therefore days are much colder, especially where communities sit in shektered Highland Glens where the sun almost never reaches anyway.
Little, if any wind and air settles more and therefore it doesn't mix, this process of calm air, clear skies allows heat to escape for effectively and thus we see very cold nights. The colder the day is, often when you've got the 3 key ingredients for "maximum radiational cooling", the easier it is for the temperature to drop down to very low levels at night.
Another important aspect to recieving extreme cold is that the actual air mass in place within our atmosphere must be very cold, certainly of Arctic origin. The one we have currently over us is Arctic air that's in fact being driven down from Scandinavia. We're essentually on it's tail end at present, however come Thursday, this air mass that is as of now over Norway, should be over us and therefore highs even in the Central Belt from Glasgow to Edinburgh may actually see "highs" only reach -3 to -6C with nighttime lows really plunging to extreme levels of -10 to -15C. The Highland communities that are both locked deep within interior Scotland and are high in elevation will see "highs" perhaps struggle to reach -8 to -10C and with that extremely cold temperature to begin with, nights may fall with ease to -20C and therefore I am predicting a low colder than what the BBC and Met Office are predicting with a -25C somewhere.
Tomorrow I shall be discussing what lies ahead for us and my ideas which lead to believe a harsh period winter winter was to hit by late November and how it was going to be as severe as it has turned out to be... stay tuned!
What's Reaching Today's Blogs?
Epic Start to Ski Season-The Incredible Facts
Ken Clark, AccuWeather
Yazoo City Hit Again by Another Tornado
Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather
The Extremes of the Day
Today's US Extremes
Courtesy of AccuWeather
High: 86 degrees at Naples, FL
Low: -5 degrees at Burns, OR
Today's UK Extremes
Courtesy of the Met Office
High: 44 degrees (6.5C) at Isles of Scilly
Cold High: 25 degrees (-3.9C) at Aviemore (Highland)
Low: 3 degrees (-16.1C) at Altnaharra (Sutherland)
Today's Extremes here at my house
High: 30 degrees
Low: 26 degrees
TODAY'S CONDITIONS
Snowcover: 5 inches
A SNOWY MORNING WHICH TURNED MORE SHOWERY THROUGHOUT THE DAY, COLD FEELING!
Thanks for reading.
-Mark
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