Benvironment

The environment, nature and beauty from a Scottish perspective.

[benvironment]

Beautiful frosty hues in the glen today, with temperatures nudging -10C this morning. But even though it's been cold for a while now, the snow is very steadily disappearing through 'sublimation' - moving from solid to gas without the liquid stage in between. We need a top up!!

[benvironment]

Pants. Why must there ALWAYS be pants?! 🩲🤪

[benvironment]

The stats for last month are in and.....December's overall average temp of 4.6C made it joint 4th warmest Dec of my dataset, and was a whopping 2.1C warmer than Dec 2022. Yep, the first week was very cold, but the mild muck took over after that, and even a cooler finish couldn't stop the month overall from being 1C warmer than my long term average.

Daytime highs were 0.6C above average, night time lows were 1C above average. Warmest day of 10.9C was quite cool for modern Decembers, but still 0.2C warmer than the average max for Dec. Coldest night of -2.3C was 0.2C warmer than average min for Dec. Total rainfall was 135.5mm.

There were also: 6 air frosts (2 below average) 5 days when snow fell (1 below average), and 3 days when snow was lying at 9am (2 below average). So overall, a lean winter month in terms of ice and snow.

There were certainly windy days, and a high gust of 57mph, but that's not particularly high for somewhere at our altitude in winter. There were no sustained 40mph gales this month, which is 2 below my long term average for December and continues the recent trend of Dec calm.

So, December 2023 teased with early cold but we are STILL therefore waiting for two consecutive colder than average months in a row. Hasn't happened since Apr/May 2021! As ever, I've attached the updated visual representation of my weather dataset. It shows the last 155 calendar months in the Lomond Hills vs my long-term average (Dec 2010 on the far left, Dec 2023 on the far right).

Blue = colder than average

Green = equal to average

Red = warmer than average

[benvironment]

Happy New Year from Braemar, folks......when it comes 🙂🥳

Yep, I need to write this now, cos I'll likely be in bed and asleep before midnight 😆

[benvironment]

It's been one of those days when you need to get out quick 'n' early if you want to grab the best of the weather 🙂

Beautiful start to the day here at Mar Lodge, but it's quite sobering how quickly conditions can deteriorate. Advancing weather from the southwest stripped all colour from the landscape......but even that can gift you some lovely conditions.

An early morning jaunt up Carn na Drochaide. Because while I've had a lovely Christmas down south, catching up with LOOOOOOADS of family and friends......after 1000 miles of travel in the land of green, I was desperate for.....SNOW!! 🙂

[benvironment]

Welcome to Christmas Eve, English Midlands style 🫠🤮 Bit of a shock getting out the car down here 😱 6C back home!

[benvironment]

A bit late....but here's the lowdown on November in the Lomond Hills

November's overall average temp of 5.5C made it the 6th coolest November of my dataset. It started off fairly average in terms of temperatures, but while the 3rd week was very warm, the 4th week was very cold. This means yep, it was certainly the coldest November for a few years (since 2019 in fact), but it wasn't notably cold overall and the month still came out bang-on my long term average.

Daytime highs were 0.3C below average, night time lows were 0.3C above average.

The warmest day was 11.7C, which is 0.4C cooler than the average max for Novembers. The coldest night was -1.7C, which was pretty cold for November (1.2C below long term average) and made it the coldest November night since 2017.

There were: 2 air frosts (1 below average); 2 days when snow fell (equal to average); 0 days when snow was lying at 9am (1 below average). Total rainfall was 88.9mm. Three times less than October.

So, November 2023 came very close to being below average (a rare thing these days) but didn't quite make it. So we are STILL therefore waiting for two consecutive colder than average months in a row. That hasn't happened since Apr/May 2021!

As usual I've posted the updated visual representation of my weather dataset. It shows the last 154 calendar months in the Lomond Hills vs my long-term average (Dec 2010 on the far left, Nov 2023 on the far right).

Blue = colder than average

Green = equal to average

Red = warmer than average

[benvironment]

I paused to appreciate Jack's artwork on my car windows this morning. And 30 seconds later I discovered my car wouldn't start 🤪 Nice half hour walk to work though!

[benvironment]

Icy windows this morning at Mar Lodge.....and a low of -11.5C.

[benvironment]

East Fife has been clipped by a few showers today, and late this afternoon I could see Largo Law was all white. The Lomonds are too far west to catch the heavier stuff, but we still managed to get our first (VERY light) snowfall of the season last night....which is fairly late for this part of the world. Previous years as follows:

02-Dec 2019 07-Dec 2014 06-Dec 2022 03-Dec 2020 28-Nov 2023 25-Nov 2011 13-Nov 2015 08-Nov 2016 06-Nov 2013 27-Oct 2018 26-Oct 2012 20-Oct 2021

This morning was also the first air frost (below 0C) of the season up here, which again, is fairly late:

14-Dec 2018 08-Dec 2022 05-Dec 2014 04-Dec 2011 03-Dec 2020 29-Nov 2023 27-Nov 2021 23-Nov 2017 21-Nov 2015 18-Nov 2016 and 2019 09-Nov 2013 26-Oct 2012

[benvironment]

Gawd what a beautiful day! I was working of course, but there's always a stream of maintenance/path checks to do, and where possible it's nice to coincide them with beautiful days like today.

Glen Derry and Glen Lui this morning, and Glen Quoich in the afternoon. It stayed pretty chilly all day with a high of just 2.5C, up from a low this morning of -4.8C 🙂

[benvironment]

Lovely walk late this morning on East Lomond, with plenty to see and hear along the way. Pictured are four roe deer, a (dodgy pic of a) short eared owl, a flock of bullfinches, and a couple of snow buntings that were milling about the summit 🙂

Kestrels and red grouse also encountered but I was too slow on the button 😉

[benvironment]

Back in the day, ALL my photos from west coast trips were of views from high summits. These days they're far more likely to be of this kind of thing 🙂 Yep, I've had a lovely afternoon roaming Drimnin Estate with my zoom lens, peering through dense broadleaf woodland 🙂

[benvironment]

October's overall average temperature of 8.8C made it the 5th coolest Oct of my dataset. During the days, it probably felt cool in all that rain, and indeed the daytime highs were 0.3C below average, but the nights were 0.3C above average, and the month as a whole was still 0.1C above my long term average. That really isn't much, and so overall, it was the most 'average' October since 2020.

The warmest day was 15.9C, which is bang on the long term average for warmest days in October. The coldest night of 0.9C was cold for October, 1C below long term average for October, and the coldest October night since 2018. Total rainfall was 251.3mm.

So, while the average temperature was pretty average we are STILL therefore waiting for two consecutive colder than average months in a row. That hasn't happened since Apr/May 2021!

As ever, I've posted the updated visual representation of my weather dataset. It shows the last 153 calendar months in the Lomond Hills vs my long-term average (Dec 2010 on the far left, Oct 2023 on the far right).

Blue = colder than average

Green = equal to average

Red = warmer than average

[benvironment]

A distinctly wintry scene this morning at Mar Lodge. Snow steadily settling as it's only 0.5C, from an overnight low of -1.4C.

[benvironment]

Difficult to stand still to take this pic, as the wind was so strong. But goodness me, bit of a rocky and icy delight on Lochnagar today!

[benvironment]

Peak larch at the Punchbowl. The birch, rowan, willow and aspen are already past their best, but it's nice how autumn colours persist for weeks because different tree species turn at different times. The larch this year have looked especially rusty and felt especially vivid, but that could just be because there's been so little sunshine that any colour in the landscape stands out a mile! 😉

I'm heading off to Morvern next week and am looking forward to photographing those west coast oaks, which are among the last trees to turn, covered in lichens and mosses 🙂