Thursday 26 November 2015

Winter arrives - an evening walk


The weekend of the 21st and 22nd of November was forecast to be wintry in Aberdeenshire with temperatures well below freezing and snow showers.  By Saturday evening it was certainly cold and there was a light dusting of snow.  The first snow of this winter fell on the highest ground at the end of October when autumn was at its most colourful, but as is usual with early snow it was a transient thing.  This was the first snow to low levels and it seemed likely not to last very long either.  Bennachie's Mither Tap looked very fine under a dusting of fresh snow.

On one of my usual evening walks from home the scene was fresh and different....





 ...even a light dusting brings out contrast, detail and feature in the land.  What's more, it promised to be a fine winter sunset.






And it was.  The snow cover raised the light level just enough to enable a photograph long after the sun had set - which is a little after 3.30pm at this time of year.






The moon was well up into a sky rapidly clearing of cloud as the temperature dived below freezing.  A chilly north wind was starting up too, heralding a cold night.  It turned out that the weather forecasters were off the mark about the heaviest snow show having already fallen....

2 comments:

  1. Looks lovely, Ian. Similar weather here on south Vancouver Island...minus one (C) this morning and clear, sunny skies most of week. Sunset today was at 1624 hrs today and sunrise tomorrow at 0737. Last full moon before the winter solstice...it lights up the night, it's so bright. Thoroughly enjoyed the paddling from the Solway. Warm wishes to you both.

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  2. It's been really quite good weather in the northeast Duncan, though windy - different story on the west coast though; it's amazing the difference across a small country.

    Warm wishes to you both

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