Resort And Weather News

Heading up the Carpark tow at Cairngorm on Wednesday 24 February (image c/o www.winterhighland.info)

Severe wintry weather has forced Scotland’s ski resorts to close temporarily on Thursday 25 February. All five are currently “stormbound”, reporting half a metre of fresh snow or more a piece overnight on Wednesday 24 February and into Thursday.

Glencoe reported the most snow on Thursday with 80cm received, followed by Cairngorm with 70cm, The Lecht and Nevis Range with 60cm each and Glenshee with 50cm. The onslaught has forced lifts and runs to close across the resorts and is also creating access problems with the mountain road currently blocked at Cairngorm Mountain.

As the outlined at ski.visitscotland.com the Nevis Range mountain workers are reporting heavy snow down to car park level – where eight inches of snow have collected – as well as “up to 5ft in the drifts” whilst at The Lecht there is “2ft of fresh powder snow drifting giving whiteout condition at times”. Glencoe reports “epic amounts of snow on the mountain (waist deep at the top of the access chair)”.

It's a whiteout at the top of the Cairngorm Funicular on Wednesday (image c/o www.winterhighland.info)

The weather conditions may be challenging at present but when the snow lets up there will be some fantastic conditions to enjoy in the ski areas to rival those in early January. The Nevis Range said it expected “to have amazing skiing when the weather conditions improve” whilst Cairngom said “The new dump of snow will make the whole mountain a giant playpark”.

The snowy conditions are forecast to stay until Monday with dumps around 25cm expected across all five resorts over the course of Thursday and Thursday night. The snow is then expected to ease to light snow over the weekend before giving way to clouds on Tuesday and the odd ray of sunshine on Wednesday.

For the latest updates on the conditions in Scotland, including resort re-openings, visit our snow reports.