JANUARY

So this evening’s Countryfile has told us that the weather pattern is a big area of high pressure over Europe, expected to remain for some time. With the UK on the north-western edge of this, we have small fronts nudging into NW Scotland, going clockwise over the high, with SW winds, and tomorrow will see temperatures of 8 degrees in the Highlands and minus 5 degrees in Germany. Today’s pictures from the SAIS blogs indicate that whilst there may be substantial areas of snow on some elevations/gulleys, many hillsides are largely bare and the thaw will continue in coming days.

The weather for next weekend is thus in the balance. Our hope is if the high pressure shifts or expands to give colder and clearer weather over eastern Scotland. MWIS .says “Uncertainty as to whether milder, windier conditions over NW Scotland will push further south after Thursday or whether much colder, drier air will start to edge NW’wards from off mainland Europe.” .Therefore if the good thing happens, Braemar might be the sort of place to go.

There seem to be quite a few potential names in the frame for next weekend….. Mike, Tenk (?) BrianH, Frank, Marjan, Dolly, SteveM, Peri, and myself makes 9, sorry I’ve possibly forgotten someone. A much larger gang than usual, so we’ll have to look carefully over the next 48 -72 hours and decide if we still want to go (ie as the weather develops) and how to arrange groups/transport.
Frank checked out Crianlarich YH as a speculative move t’other day, and that is full (!)

So we may have the dilemma that if we want to secure accommodation for a sizeable group, we won’t be able to leave it till the last minute, and so we’ll take a risk with the weather

ANDREW