Well here it is, the beginning of December and the first snow has arrived, causing much excitement on Twitter and, and, well not much else. The gritters have been out and the Sunday morning traffic is moving normally.
It is more like a normal winter, although we have just have the warmest November on record with hardly a sign of frost. As I write, I can see Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) growing out of doors untouched by frost. All this is rather unlike last year when there was a week of sub zero temperatures in November, with the daytime temperature struggling to reach -1° C. When the snow did arrive, the ground was deep frozen. It settled straight away and wasn’t going anywhere, also it was heavy snowfall, 20-30cm at a time, not the 2cm we have had this morning. Sadly I can’t see there being any ski touring on Arthur’s Seat this December (which I have just noticed was exactly a year ago today). Meanwhile in the Alps, many of the ski resorts are still waiting for snow…
Friday, 9th, December 2011 at 22:00
The lack of snow is a major problem to the ski resorts around here and in Switzerland: the ski season is the main tourist season for some of them and there comes a point when you can’t afford to spray fake snow much longer.
Winter here seems to be coming and leaving later, but it’s also getting more severe when it does come.