well the ensemble for the next 2 weeks is on the cool side, it almost continuously below the 30 year average, so a decent start at least.

Certainly looks like the Greenland high will influence our weather patterns for a while yet. Always the best chance of drier weather to the north of the U.K. It's not often you can say that. A chance of ground frost in the glens as we enter "summer" with slow thawing at the main snow patch sites. Last June was cool to say the least and June 2012 looks to be starting in a similar vein.

Well there ain't much thawing just now, -3°c at the Summit at 7am this morning. If the heatwave had started this weekend for the Jubilee holiday and the last 2 weeks weather was swapped about we'd have pretty decent lift served riding for the extended bank holiday weekend!

A touch of fresh snow clearly visible even on the Mountain Spirit webcam looking towards Braeriach. Just a sugar coating, but snow nonetheless.

Some nice photographs by Ruari MacDonald and Chionophile, taken on 1st June. The one below shows Ben MacDui from Cairn Gorm summit. A big loss of snow over the last 10 days, as if anyone needed to be told!

Iain, that snow on Braeriach was on my tent this morning! And there was ice on my boots too. I was camped at about 900m on the Moine Mhor, wasn't expecting such low temperatures. Amazing loss of snow in the past week or so, all the snow has been stripped from the Moine Mhor, although I would say that the remaining patches on Braeriach/Gleann Einich look 'normal' (whatever that is!) for early June. On the train down south however, there was hardly any snow visible anywhere above Glen Feshie or in the Drumochter/Dalwhinnie area, which is fairly unusual for this time of year I think.

Interesting, Eddie. Snowing to 900 metres? The Moine Mhor is a fine place for a camp. Have done it a couple of times myself, and it's hard to believe that the whole plateau is around 3000 ft. Mile after glorious mile of wilderness. RJ, Dakishman and I walked over it a couple of years back in fabulous September weather before dropping in to Garbh Choire Mor. A beautiful day, in sharp contrast to the couple of times coaster and I have done it in torrential rain!



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 23.47hrs Sun 3 Jun 12 by firefly.

In fact it was lower than 900m Iain, I was camped at Loch nan Stuirteag, which lies at 860m. Very definitely lying snow, although it was just a dusting of flakes and needles in hollows and the lee of boulders. The path down from the Mòine Mhòr through Coire Dhondail is a bit scary in places (first time I've been on that route), just goes to show that there are really no easy approaches to Garbh Choire Mòr!

Have a look at these two photos of Braeriach I took recently, they show the dramatic snow cover loss of the past several days. They were both taken from the north, near Lochan Deo, 13 days apart. The first one was taken on 21/05/12, the second yesterday, 03/06/12:

Attachments: IMG_5283.jpg (137kB)   IMG_5364.jpg (85kB)  

Some showers passing over the top of the Cairngorms this morning. With a summit temperature of minus 2degC these will almost certainly be of snow above 3200 odd feet. The webcam shows a fair bit of cloud, but if it clears I'm sure it will show another sprinkling of the white stuff.

It would probably be a good idea in future to remember to check the CML webcam before making pronouncements... However, in this instance it seems that it has indeed been snowing, albeit only slightly. Not bad so far this month. Only the fourth of June but we've had snow in two of those days.

There were light snow showers this afternoon of little round pellets A heavy one lay briefly on the vegetation but soon melted. Felt colder than Saturday- hat and mitts needed !

Walked round from the tor patch till I could see Macdui and it looks like there's been little change since Ruari's photo

Helen

Attachments: Snow showers in the afternoon lay briefly.JPG (196kB)   Macdui on zoom from SE of Cairngorm.JPG (152kB)  

Some good pictures of Beinn Bhrotain and its environs from Alan O'Dowd, taken on 3rd June.


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Edited 1 times. Last edit at 09.39hrs Tue 5 Jun 12 by firefly.

Cuidhe Chrom snowpatch on Ben More from the A85 near Loch Lubhair. This was taken yesterday afternoon, 04/06/12. It looks almost identical to when I walked up to the snowpatch on exactly the same day last year and measured its length as 100m using a GPS receiver. I noted last year that the patch had split into two pieces and this is evident in the photo taken yesterday too.

Attachments: IMG_5373.jpg (157kB)  

Nice photo, Eddie. Looks to be about the same as last year sure enough. The snow lasted until 22 June last year, and that looks a fair bet for this year, too.

By-the-way, It's Loch Iubhair (pronounced YOO-ur), not Lubhair. The council made the same mistake a few years ago when they stuck up a signpost by the side of the road, advertising a picnic spot. It has since been rectified! It means the loch of the yews, or yew tree loch or similar I believe. It appears in the village name on Mull where the ferry comes in from Oban (Craignure, pronounced locally Craiganure, from the gaelic Creag an Iubhair). A small point, but important nonetheless!

It was Bear Scotland who made the mistake Iain. Sorry forgot about your email. Will get to it now!

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