Cold and Sunny
13th February 2026
A stunning day in Lochaber today. It was feeling pretty chilly on the tops with the air temperature down to -9°C this morning, and looks to be peaking around -7°C early afternoon. Due to radiative cooling under the clear skies the snow surface temperature was even colder, -10.5°C where I measured it on a shady NW aspect. I suspect it would have been lower in locations more sheltered from the NE breeze. The low snow surface temperatures set up strong temperature gradients in the snowpack which can decrease the stability of the snowpack. This is starting to happen in the patches of slab that remain mainly on high SW through W to N aspects.
More of the same expected tomorrow before a a storm system arrives from the Atlantic on Saturday night and is expected to deposit a fair amount of fresh snow. This is likely to create a more complex and interesting snowpack than has been seen for a number of years.
Climbers preparing to abseil into Left Twin on Aonach Mor. The South Side of Coire an Lochan behind. It is a long time since I have seen the crags looking so buried, I can’t recall them looking like this since the winter of 2013-14 which was a very snowy winter at higher levels.
Lots of rime on everything.
The North side of Coire an Lochan. The crags are looking just as white. A team can be seen at the base of Left Twin.
Aonach Beag also looking pretty white.
Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg looking rather fine.
Looking out over the Grey Coires with the Creag Meagaidh hills on the left and some cloud over the Cairngorms visible in the distance.
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