I used to get asked this question a lot when I was one of the Knoydart rangers. The truth is, it isn’t usually snowy as it is today. A typical winter involves weeks of rain, gales and grey mist. In a word, winter is “dreich”.
But the last two winters, like much of the UK, we have had much colder weather with a lot of snow. Even so, Knoydart still doesn’t get as much snow as most of the Highlands, even when we get a cold one. Why is this? The main reason – and the one you’ll always hear – is that the Gulf Stream – warm waters from the Caribbean – keep the western coastal strip of Scotland a few degrees warmer than further inland. In fact the whole of the UK is much milder than land at the same latitude: Knoydart is at the same latitude as Hudson Bay in Canada, where the sea freezes and polar bears amble across the tundra.
But there’s another reason why we don’t get as much snow as elsewhere in the Highlands and that’s our sheltered position. Cold air floods across Scotland when we get either an easterly or a northerly wind. With an easterly most of the snow showers that come in off the North Sea fall down the east side of Scotland – great news for the Cairngorm ski industry. When we get a northerly the snow hits the north Highlands and sweeps down the west coast. Sometimes this snow gets as far as Knoydart but invariably it peters out before it reaches us.
So Knoydart often misses out on the really heavy snowfalls which is fantastic if you’re a snow-hater but annoying in the extreme if, like me, you crave a ‘proper’ winter. Today, I’m pretty happy; we’ve got a north-westerly which means a lot of the snow showers sweeping across the North Atlantic do make it through to Knoydart. The Isle of Skye kind of gets in the way a bit but at least some of the snow reaches us. And when it does I make the most of it, so this morning I got out and got some photographic evidence of snow in Knoydart. How anyone can grumble about snow is beyond me. I’d rather tramp about in a sparkly blanket of snow than battle through the wind and drizzle.
