There is no doubt we have had an exceptional run of 5 months benign weather since the start of meteorological autumn, but the following stat puts a wee bit of perspective on the hysterical Scottish Skiings over media coverage recently.
Mean January temperature anomaly for Scotland with respect to the 61-90 average and comparative webcam images from 30th January:
January 2017: Temperature anomaly +1.5°c
January 2014: Temperature anomaly +1.5°c
In short mean temperature tells us very little about the dynamics of Highland mountain weather and given our geographic location in the battlezone between various different climate zones and their air masses - the synoptic pattern will have an impact on our temperature far greater than global changes.
There is nothing in the UKCIP09 projections that say snow is just going to disappear from the Scottish Mountains and if it did in the lifetime of anyone on this forum we'd have far greater concerns than skiing.
We've seen cyclical periods of good and bad since people first ventured into the Scottish hills on skis long before there was formal mechanised snowsports even. As I posted recently 2017, 2012, 2007, 2002, 1997, 1992... quite freaky that we should get a pattern where every 5 years there was a season very significantly poorer than the ones preceding it - or is it given the just under 11 year average of Solar Cycles?
Does not mean we should not care about AGW and Scotland frankly is doing a hell of lot more than much of the world, but I do despair that despite personal changes at the top the same attitude appears to prevail in CairnGorm Mountain Limited that did with Bob Kinnaird 15 years ago - it won't snow again!
Edited 2 times. Last edit at 14.43hrs Mon 6 Feb 17 by alan.
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