•England Club Fields

•Mountain Weather

•Mountain Forecast Discussion

•Webcams and Weather Stations

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Get an early West coast weather check - our Glencoe webcams are updating from around 8am currently, with the Sledge Park camera on the Plateau operating 24/7. Our Leadhills camera in the Lowther Hills is online 24/7 for a weather check in the Southern Uplands.

CairnGorm Mountain is offering early season snowsports in the Top Basin with both the Ciste and Ptarmigan Tows scheduled for Monday, which would give the full Top Basin vertical of 600ft. Fluctuating temperature and repeated bouts of high winds are forecast for the week ahead, so snowsports potential will need to be assessed day to day. At present online tickets are only available for Monday.

Snow was refrozen on Sunday morning, softening in damp milder temps on Sunday afternoon. The highest terrain will catch some fresh snow overnight, possibly a couple of cm, but towards the bottom of the Ciste Tow there is a risk there could be a net loss overnight into Monday.

Both the temperature and windspeed will be on an upwards trajectory on Tuesday morning and a period of fairly heavy rain at all levels is expected. With Storm Force SE winds, irrespective of how the snow holds up, snowsports on Tuesday looks unlikely at this stage. However, it is still uncertain on whether the Central Highlands will catch the worst of the winds later Tuesday overnight into Wednesday, or whether they will stay off shore or only graze the far NW Highlands.

Below, the Top Station things have filled in at the top of the middle runs down into Coire Cas, but once below the 3000ft mark that base is patchy.

So far, apart from the Lecht nowhere has been even close to having sufficient snow for lift served riding amongst the Scottish areas and sadly the Lecht having been fairly close to skiable cover between the fences has seen a slow but steady thaw over recent days and only small patches remain.

Over in the West snow has been accumulating above Island Rock at Glencoe, which means the top of the Main Basin, Happy Valley and the Spring Run are slowly filling in. Fluctuations in temperature are consolidating the existing snow, so hopefully some of this will come through the roller coaster this coming week to give the start of a base on the sections of the mountain that need the most snow.

At Glencoe the Access Chairlift has reopened for winter and is now open daily (wind permitting). Not enough snow to push out an official sledge park yet, but there are snow factory piles to play on outside the Plateau Cafe, which will open for the season when either skiing or sledging starts, or for the school holidays. First chair up at 9am, last chair up at 3.30pm and last chair down at 4pm. White Corries Cafe at the base is open 8am to 4.30pm during early December.

The Nevis Range Gondola is open daily at present (wind permitting) with the last gondola up at 3.45pm and last down at 4pm. The Gondola will be closed from Monday 5th January, until early February.

At update both the A93 Cairnwell Pass and A939 Lecht Pass were open.

:: England Club Fields

The three Pennine Clubfields all enjoyed a November start to their season, with Allenheads and Weardale notching up the first lift served UK snow turns of the season. There has not yet been sufficient snow at Raise in the Lake District and all clubfields are currently waiting for new snow.

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 +1.7°c, with a South wind at a mean of 8 gusting 15mph. At the base it was +4.7°c at 6pm.

The SAIS summit AWS on Aonach Mor was reporting -0.2°c. The Met Office station was reporting a SSE wind at 26 gusting 34mph. The Tower 17 AWS on the Gondola was offline due to a flat battery and it is unlikely to recharge over the next few days! At Tulloch Station (237m) the temperature was +6.8°c.

In the East the CairnGorm the Met Office Summit AWS reported -0.2°c with a South Easterly at a mean of 36 gusting 52mph. Aviemore was at +7.2°c at 6pm.

The Met Office Cairnwell AWS (3061ft /934m) reported +2.0°c with a SE wind at a mean of 22 gusting 43 mph.

:: Mountain Forecast Discussion

The freezing level falls back slightly early Monday, when we should see snow showers for a number of hours on higher slopes with the Munro Level temperature around +1°c, before again rising after dusk on Monday. Some uncertainty still,about windspeed on Monday, though starting around 20 to 25 gusting 40mph, risk speeds may pick up in the afternoon towards 40 gusting 60mph, but some model output has this occurring after dusk. Mix of some brighter interludes in the North interspersed with wintry showers falling as snow on the higher tops. At Munro Level temperature will rise to +2 or +3°c towards dusk.

It is now almost certain to be a considerably milder day on Tuesday, but there is still uncertainty about how high Munro Level temperatures will get and for how long, depending on the still to be mailed on track of the low pressure. Unfortunately nearly all models runs now have the warm sector fully crossing Highland Scotland , Plus 4 to +5°c at Munro Level, but particularly to the NE of the main ranges could reach +8°c.

Severe Gale SE winds will be Storm Force on and downslope of the CairnGorm Plateau and either late Tuesday or overnight into Wednesday upland winds likely to reach Hurricane Force as the direction veers SW.

From the snowsports prospective, sustained high wind speeds through mid-week mean even if the snow cover holds up in the Top Basin on CairnGorm, lift served riding looks likely to be a no goer after Monday until at least Friday.

Looking beyond that the present balance of the model output points towards a flatter, but cooler zonal flow in the medium term. Potentially a good outcome for the mountains, particularly the West Coast, with copious amounts of precipitation and just cold enough for snow on the mountains. It will however be utterly horrid at low levels if that is the outcome, but that might be the price to be paid for getting a base down on the mountains!

:: Webcams and Weather Stations

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

GLENCOE: Most mountain webcams online and the first updated images will be shortly before 8am. The sledge park camera is online 24/7. Wind speed is available from base and mid mountain, temperature / humidity are also available from the top of the Access Chair. Summit has no power at present.