>THIS POST WAS WRITTEN YESTERDAY, SORRY FOR THE DELAY!
Even though the temperatures have warmed well above freezing now and Arctic air is gone. What’s left whether it be deep snowpack in the Cairngorms or frozen ground. An Atlantic weather regime often spells trouble when you’ve had terrific snows in the mountains and sustained sub-freezing air for a solid 3-4 week period.
Winds to gale-force and even hurricane force in high, remote ridges often creates major drifting of snow and therefore further road closures are imminent. The central Highland region which has recieved a lot of snow now contend with 10 to 15 foot drifts across roads and through towns as the Atlantic winds blow in, forcing the closure of the Cairgorm Mountain Ski Centre. On top of this, warmer air is bringing problems with surface water building up and local river systems are rising fast. Luckily, temperatures at higher elevation is lower than in lower elevation and therefore we aren’t seeing vast flooding.
However, even though the Central Belt isn’t seeing much in the way of flooding. The Southern Uplands have seen heavy rains during the overnight of Friday into Saturday. Combine this with snow melting and runoff as a result as well as still frozen ground perhaps 1-2 feet or more in depth, all the water from hillside runoff and heavy rains is swelling rivers such as the Nith in Dumfriesshire as well as serious road flooding which forced me to turn and change route not once but twice during early yesterday morning. The A76 between Kirkconnel (just north of Sanquhar) and Cumnock was closed due to flooding and a suspected landslide. I changed route driving south and headed for the B797 which is the 11th highest road in Britain and cuts through the Lowther Hills, high and remote and with it’s very narrow and twisty nature as well as fierce wind gusts blasting through the narrow gorge as I entered a high and lonely 15 mile stretch where I recieved no phone signal, I WAS ON MY OWN. Just me and my truck. It was rough with wind whipped rain battering my windshield and water covering the road, at times, tarmac was broken up with the amount of water pouring from the skies as well as roaring down hillsides once deeply covered by snow by as much as a foot or more deep. Water even pouring from up under the road made me worry as I carefully drove along a cliff edge with nothing by a steep drop to my right, I feared the road was washed away as I couldn’t see much ahead of me. As I drove along this windy, steep road there was nothing surrounding me but wild, rugged and weather beaten hills some 1,500 ft in elevation. It really was the raw Southern Uplands which I had never experienced before.
I was aiming for the M74 but to get there I needed to pass through the village of Wanlockhead, considered Britains “highest village” at an elevation of 1,531 feet. I drove over Mennock Pass before asending into the tiny village of Wanlockhead with it’s very narrow streets and snow piles between 1-4 feet high. Rain had sleet mixed in and water in places lay several inches deep on the roadway. Once navigating my truck, too wide for this type of B class road and narrowly squeezing in between walls of gardens and cars parked I drove in a further 2 miles before leaving Dumfries and Galloway and entering South Lanarkshire and entered the other tiny village of Leadhills, elevation 1,295 ft, also an old mining village. The old railway between these two high-elevation villages is also considered the highest railway in Britain.
Eventually after another 6 lonely miles of wild weather and tight, twisty road with a decent back to relative civalisation I got to Abington and along the edge of the M74 motorway, I was rather relieved as at any point during that 15 mile ride of “extreme trucking” the road could have been too tight for a truck or could have been washed out or gone even as some sections where perilously close to the cliff edge. The weight of my truck concerned me somewhat since I didn’ know anything about that road so I was driving along it blind so to speak not knowing what was up ahead.
Once turning the roundabout to enter the northbound M74 I realised it also was shut due to a burst water main… Yet again I had another detour and drove northbound on an adjacent trunk road and eventually entered the motorway at Happendon.
The worst flooding will occur in the Highlands where as much as 4 feet of snow once lay on the ground in places and across higher ground of the Southern Uplands where not only heavy snow lay but also heavy wind swep rain hit, exaserbating the problem.
Thanks for reading.
-Mark
Recent Comments