•England Club Fields

•Mountain Weather

•Mountain Forecast Discussion

•Webcams and Weather Stations

A whiteout gave way to a washout on Sunday with no lift served snowsports, with the three Eastern Areas still StormBound. At update the A939 Lecht Pass, A93 Cairnwell Pass and the CairnGorm Ski Road remained closed at the respective snow gates.

If you have been out on slopes please send photos to the email at the foot of this page!

The forecast blizzard conditions arrived overnight with snow falling on the mountains into Sunday morning before a very messy transition as milder air pushed Eastwards. The high winds and severe early drifting down to road level in the East meant all three Eastern snowsports areas were fully stormbound.

Wind speeds are actually forecast to increase further tonight into Monday AM, so the prospects of uplift running on Monday is low, with CairnGorm already cancelling snowsports for the day. Weather permitting efforts will focus on storm recovery work to reopen on Tuesday where, despite uncertainty in the forecasts, the balance of data points to a much better day.

This has been a fairly classic Scottish January storm cycle, heavy frontal snow pushing in ahead of a warm sector that brings the freezing level above the tops. The snow that fell was much stickier than recent powdery snow during the cold spell and for a number of hours will have been driven downslope lower than the freezing level alone may suggest. As ever in these storms the question is whether there has been a net overall gain in the consolidated base over the complete storm cycle. We will have to wait till the freezing level comes back down and overhead improves during Monday to really have an idea what the situation is.

Snow cover and conditions from Saturday are very historical information now! It is not going to look as pretty as it did, but huge amounts of drifting snow was moving around last night and into Sunday morning and it has certainly blasted snow into at least parts of the natural snowfields and gullies that form the classic natural Scottish ski terrain, plus suitably oriented fences. Now saturated dense wet snow, this will set up as a solid base that wont be blowing anywhere!

A piste basher made it to the summit at Glencoe for the first time this season on Sunday morning before precipitation turned to rain at all levels, massive drifted accumulations mixed with scoured areas though, so a full assessment will be required when the weather eases, but at dusk it looked as if a start to the West Coast season was closer than it was before this storm started.

The Access Chairlift did not run on Sunday due to the wind, and it looks doubtful for Monday morning, so check AM updates. Currently more promising for Tuesday. It is advisable to arrive before 2pm at the latest for sledging to get a decent amount of time on the hill. First chair up at 9am, last chair up at 3.45pm and last chair down at 4pm. Snowsports lessons are taking place for beginners on snow at the Plateau Cafe (weather permitting).

All facilities at Nevis Range have been closed since Monday 5th January, including the base area. There is no lift assisted access to Aonach Mor for tourers or winter climbers at this time.

:: England Club Fields

The 3 Pennine Club Fields were able to open on Saturday, with a thin cover of new snow lying on frozen ground.

Weardale managed to open Sunday morning, with a decent covering of new snow overnight, but closed at lunchtime in rapidly deteriorating wet and windy weather. Weardale will not open again until colder temperatures and new snow return. Allenheads did not open as it was raining at the village elevation by morning.

For both Weardale and Allenheads, you need to join the club with a season pass, these are still available for both at this time.

Please check club access rules / availability if not a club member / pass holder.

Weardale: https: //skiweardale.com/ .
Allenheads: http://ski-allenheads.co.uk/ .
Yad Moss: https: //yadmoss.co.uk/ .
Raise: https: //www.ldscsnowski.co.uk/ .

:: Mountain Weather

At 6pm in the West at the Glencoe SSC hut at 850m the mid mountain temperature was +3.1°c, wind at 25 gusting 65mph. Highest gust on Sunday was 83mph pre dawn. At Base level (366m) it was +5.1°c.

The SAIS summit AWS on Aonach Mor was reporting +1.0°c. The Met Office station was reporting a South wind at 38 gusting 70mph. At the CIC Hut (680m) it was +5.7°c. At Tulloch Station (237m) the temperature was +7.7°c.

In the East on CairnGorm the Herriot Watt Summit AWS reported +0.3°c with a Southerly at a mean of 67 gusting 73mph. Aviemore was at +5.4°c at 6pm.

The Met Office Cairnwell AWS (3061ft /934m) reported +0.9°c with a South wind at a mean of 50 gusting 43mph.

:: Mountain Forecast Discussion

Temperatures are creeping upwards at update as a nested secondary warm sector comes in, this is fairly narrow and is due to be followed by the cold front by or during the early hours of Monday. However there is some uncertainty on timing of the freezing level dropping, by several hours, which could make a big difference given the current intensity of the rainfall, particularly in the West.

The wind will veer to SW as the cold front comes in and increase further, mean speeds forecast to widely reach 70mph on the higher mountain terrain pre dawn on Monday. Showers will revert to snow on the Munros with the freezing level lowering to around 3000ft, whiteout conditions where snow falls during the morning. Wind widely still 45 to 50mph with gusts to 70 to 80mph daytime Monday, eventually moderating somewhat later in the afternoon.

A significant moderation in wind for Tuesday is probable, but not certain, there is enough wobble in the forecast models, to keep a close eye on the forecasts if planning Tuesday in the mountains, but on balance a transient ridge likely to give a dry and fairly bright day in the Northern Cairngorms, but some snow showers will later move into the Southern and Western Highlands as the wind freshens once more. Around -1 to -2°c at Munro Level.

Day to day detail uncertain, as a series of low pressure systems are set to come in off the Atlantic or pass close by. At this stage daytime Wednesday looks to see reasonably tolerable wind speeds, but with high winds overnight either side of Wednesday, a bit of a shift in timing could have a significant change in the weather during daylight hours.

Overall from the forecast model ensembles, the 850hpa height temperature looks to be fairly close to the long term average and higher Scottish terrain mostly around or below freezing with snow accumulating overall.

:: Webcams and Weather Stations

Lowther Hill: Leadhills webcam is online (24/7).

GLENCOE: All mountain webcams online and the first updated images will be shortly after 8am. The mid mountain weather station wind vane failed due to nearby lightning. Windspeed and other parameters are OK.

The top of the Access weather station stopped sending data around the time snow turned to rain on Sun morning. Water ingress potential problem after being frozen and will need investigated when weather improves.