Ben Nevis snow free for first time in 11 yrs

[Still Waters]

Ain’t no mountain dry enough? Ben Nevis may well have grown by a metre last year but now it is also nude from basecamp up for the first time in 11 years.

You would expect snow under foot atop the summit’s stone cairn at the lofty height of 1,345m, not a blunt, barren crown. So what on earth happened to the formerly covered peak?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/shortcuts/2017/aug/27/snow-go-why-ben-nevis-is-frost-free-for-the-first-time-in-11-years

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-41001234

[Gingitsune]

On 8/28/2017 at 8:14 AM, Still Waters said:

You would expect snow under foot atop the summit’s stone cairn at the lofty height of 1,345m, not a blunt, barren crown.

Well, Banff in Alberta, Canada, is about 1,400m high and there is no snow in summer. There must be some other factor in play which was disrupted lately. 

[Likely Guy]

1 hour ago, Gingitsune said:

Well, Banff in Alberta, Canada, is about 1,400m high and there is no snow in summer. There must be some other factor in play which was disrupted lately. 

There's a difference between a lofty peak and the average mean.

I traipsed around the bottom of Ben Nevis in mid-March. It was fairly 'cool' (as well as impressive).

[Essan]

Thats a very poorly researched/written piece for the Guardian

The summit of the Ben - and indeed every hill in Britain - is snow free every summer.   I have seen the summit snow free in January.

However, most years, a couple of tiny patches survive in deep gullies on the north face of the hill.  This year, even these have melted.   Their survival is largely d
own to prevailing weather conditions during winter/early spring and how much much snow builds up in theose gullies.  last winter was fairly dryl, with less in the way of strong SWly winds.  Hence, the drifts were not as deep as normal. 

A handful of similar patches sometimes survive on other hills, and there are still a couple in the Cairngorms, though I think thats about it this year.   Two years ago, after a mild, but very snowy, winter it was a very different story .....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-34941899