Fresh Snow and Poor Visibility
15th February 2026
A bit of a change from yesterday! It was wet overnight and through the morning. About 20mm of rain was recorded by the SEPA rain gauge in Glen Nevis. The hills probably got a bit more precipitation than that, and it all fell as snow above about 600 metres. In calm conditions 20 mm of rain would correspond to at least 20cm of snow. Tt was not calm on the tops, and the snow was drifting. This would have made it denser and more variable in distribution. However, visibility was very poor and hard to tell how much was being deposited in the tops of the gullies. It was not particularly cold, it got up to about minus one on the summit. This meant that below about 900 or 1000 metres the fresh snow felt quite damp, and sticky. Above this it was cracking underfoot and was not very well bonded. Interesting to see if there has been any avalanche activity when we next get some visibility.
The view looking up the summit run. This was as good as it got while I was on the hill. At this point I had thought I might get a view into Coire an Lochan, but by the time I got up to the top it had clagged in again.
The view when I got to the rim of the coire. You can just make out some sizeable cornices, hard to tell how much that is the old cornice, and how much of it is new.
The is more representative of what it was like on the plateau. A team of climbers by the summit hut who decided not to climb due to the unstable snow and the poor visibility.
The temperature (lighter blue) and wet bulb temperature (dark blue) on the final gondola tower (an altitude of about 680m). Very variable particularly around 8am this morning and 2pm this afternoon. Hard to give a exact freezing level when the temperature is so variable.
The temperature (just dry bulb this time) at 1200 metres for the same period as the previous graph. The rapid variations seen at 680 metres do not appear here. However, I am not sure if this due to all the rime plastered around the sensor and attenuating the short term fluctuations.
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