SAIS Lochaber Blog » Temperature blip

Temperature blip

27th January 2021

Covid -19

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This blog is intended to provide hazard and mountain condition information to help plan safer mountain trips.

There was a bit of a temperature blip in the early hours on the morning with the freezing level briefly rising up to around summit level. I think it must have been drizzly and damp at the time as the surface of the snowpack had become damp. This then refrozen during the day in the colder conditions. This has slightly consolidated the snowpack, but made travel hard work, both on ski and on foot.

A screen shot of the temperature recorded at Tower 17 (altitude 650 metres) on the Nevis Range gondola through the last 24 hours. There was a warm period during the early hours of the morning with temperatures rising to plus three degrees Celsius. Weather data from Tower 17 can be found hereÂ https://holfuy.com/en/weather/296

At all levels the snowpack has a thin icy surface crust which made from some pretty terrible skiing. At least the poor visibility meant that nobody could see my efforts.

Trying to clear. From time to time the sun would be visible through the cloud, but it did not clear while I was on the hill.Â

When I got down Ben Nevis was clear. Although it did clear later, Aonach Mor was still in the cloud at this point. Still looking very white high up.Â

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