Crystal waters as weather watchers warn of Arctic blast sweeping country
SCOTLAND is set to be gripped by Arctic conditions in the run-up to Christmas, forecasters warned.
The country could be blanketed by snow by the weekend as bitter winds blow in from the Atlantic.
This week, the West will be lashed by high winds and rain, which could turn to sleet or snow as temperatures fall.
Plunging temperatures have already sparked such rare winter phenomena as ‘ice hair’ and ‘ice pancakes’.
The thin strands of ‘hair’ only form when the temperature is between minus 0.2 and 0.4C, the air is humid and a specific fungi is present to act as a catalyst.
Pictures taken in Glen Lednock, near Comrie, Perthshire, show a fine lacy and silky ice crystal forming on a mossy tree branch.
Jaclyn Wilson, of Comrie, captured the shot above on her mobile phone last week.
Yesterday she said: ‘It is very, very fragile. You have got to be very careful of touching it or even breathing on it. It will disappear. I was very excited to see it as it is a very rare phenomenon.’
In Sutherland, footage of another winter rarity was captured on the River Helmsdale.
Binman Daniel Norrie, 31, took photos and video of ‘ice pancakes’, caused when slush and foam freeze on the surface of the water and come together to create circular shapes.
He was driving through Strath of Kildonan when he spotted them.
Mr Norrie, of Brora, said: ‘After we’d driven past these strangelooking things, I asked the driver if we could stop briefly so I could have a look at what they were. I was just so puzzled and interested by them, then I learnt they were called ice pancakes.’
Forecasters warned snow could hit the country by Saturday.
Nicky Maxey of the Met Office said: ‘If you are looking for festive flurries, these could well happen on Saturday morning.
‘The weekend is just a bit too far off at the moment to be exact. We will know a lot more once we get closer to the weekend. But overnight Friday and into Saturday morning, early indications suggest we are looking at weather fronts bearing rain, which has the potential to fall as snow.’
Meanwhile, experts said the cold winter and dry summer had a devastating effect on the grouse shooting season, which ended yesterday, due to a lack of birds.
Robert Rattray, head of Galbraith Sporting Lets, said: ‘Estates have had to cope with a poor grouse season whilst simultaneously facing a major Government review into driven grouse shooting.’