Weather on eBothy Blog

an account of an ascent of fairfield

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I was down in Grasmere for a few days last week staying at the excellent Beck Allans Guest House beside the river. They were doing a 3 for 2 so I booked up and bussed and trained my way down there with the aim of a day on the hill and a day of culture at Dove Cottage. I was so enjoying Grasmere, with its excellent real ales (Windermere, Cumbrian Bluebird), eateries (can recommend the Red Lion and Potted Out) and bookshop (Sam Read) as well as the poetry of Wordsworth that I wrote up this account in the B&B that night, hopefully with a touch of the poet’s style!

An Account Of An Ascent Of Fairfield From Grasmere Via Stone Arthur And Great Rigg With A Descent to Grisedale Hause And Mill Bridge via Tongue Gill

winter storms on the way

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

It’s going to be a wild Halloween, woOOoo! 100mph winds on the tops and snow. What a combination!

interesting skies strasvitya

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

It’s quite mild today but there’s a massively hugely cold airmass heading in from Russia. Strasvitya tovaritch! and there are some very interesting clouds around, which seem to be on the boundary of the airmasses. Warm and moist in the west but clearer and colder in the east. A very interesting sky(e) indeed.

snowy january weather

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

While some blogs are reporting the onset of Spring and are even looking forward to summer! I thought I’d post some pics of the recent snow we’ve had up here. Over the last few days it’s all melted though, although there are some fearsome cold winds heading in from the east tomorrow and next week, bringing lots more snow, hopefully.

a snowy sunrise

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Loads of snow yesterday on the tops, down to about 1000 feet, looking very wintery indeed and it’s not even November! Fantastic sunrise this morning over Beinn Sgritheall, Ladhair Bheinn and the loch:

fieldfares arrive

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

There were about a dozen fieldfares on the rowan this morning, discoing on the wind blown branches but they’ve arrived a bit too late for the berries. They normally have a feast waiting for them but the rowan is almost bare now. Very cold today with icy north winds and heavy hail showers. Blaven is starting to look alpine. Wonder if we’re in for a good winter?

weather makes history on the omm

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

In forty years, the OMM has never been cancelled, until yesterday, when the weather was just too much. Grough and the BBC have reports about the chaos. The weather here at sea level was wild enough so I can only imagine what it must have been like high up in the Lakes as the storm moved south, especially if you’re only equipped with lightweight gear. 120mph winds had abated somewhat to 90mph and burns were full to bursting but these folk know what they’re doing. Let’s hope they all get off ok. Up here is forecast for heavy snow above 650m and lightning. Reading about the OMM has put me in the mood for a short run round Leitir Fura.

a bit of wind and rain

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

So I went down to the co-op in Broadford for some grub for tomorrow’s bimble up the hill and I popped along to Camas Malaig on the road to Torrin. It’s a nice coastal walk from there to the clearance villages of Boreraig and Suisinish and I thought it would be interesting to see what the sea was doing. Forecasted winds in the Cuillin were 120mph today, with Violent Storm 11 in the Minch. Just a measly 80mph for the rest of us. It certainly felt like 50mph steady. I could barely see into the rain, it was hammering so heavy with the wind. Tomorrow, with heavy snow above 650m, high burn levels and the risk of lightning, it might be another book in bed day.

hurricanes in the hills

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Forecast for Saturday says it all. Think I’ll postpone that bimble up Blaven:

wild weather indeed

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I posted yesterday about the approaching storm and today it arrived in full force. The telly reported 88mm (3 inches) of rain down the road at Lusa and we’ve been battered all day by storm force winds. Stornoway had 75mph and it’s looking like they might get 100mph tomorrow. The rain has just been phenomenal and at one point the entire world disappeared as a violent burst of weather swept in from the south west and blew the top off the chimney, which ended up about 30 feet away. It’s still wild at the moment and it’s quite exciting listening to the roar of the gale through the trees.

another storm on the way

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Last Sunday was wild as forecast with storm force winds and torrential rain in the west and Thursday is looking like an even stormier day, with 100mph winds forecast for the hills.

The above chart produces the following forecast:

winter forecast 20089

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

It’s a raw day at the eBothy today with strong south-westerlies and snow down to around 1500 feet. There was a dusting this morning but it’s been snowing up there all day by the looks of it. There’s another storm on the way for Thursday and the Met Office have published their winter forecast for 2008/9. You can read it here. Looking back over my weather posts, the last couple of years have more or less started the same, with early snow around end of September, early October with not much else after that, except last year when we had mega-dumps which didn’t consolidate. This year feels different so far though, with more traditional weather in evidence. Prolonged snowfall and gale force winds with torrential rain lower down. The Met Office are saying it’ll be another above average temperature winter this year although less mild than last year’s, which feels about right so far. I notice the Cairngorm AWS has started working again - see the widget on the right of the page so I’ll be keeping an eye on the ‘gorms weather as it tends to get rather interesting in winter. With storm force winds and more snow forecast, it’ll be great to get out on the hill this weekend!

is winter coming early

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

It’s very autumnal here and the word on the streets is winter might be coming early. Well, it’s come early to Alaska according to An Gaidheal Alascanach (The Alaskan Gael). Translation is:

A little early for this type of view

We’ve had a real humdinger of a storm. Loads and loads of water and there was no sign of the mountains behind the town until yesterday when the clouds cleared a bit and this was the view opened to us

met office weather gadgets

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The Met office have a Firefox weather gadget. Looks brillo pad! There’s even one for Windows Vista.