First snow in October since 1934

Unusually for October, snow has been falling across large parts of the UK -

Enough snow in Aviemore, Scotland for a snowman:

We haven't had any yet here. But I hear the higher elevations (mountan tops ) have had a fair share of it a few weeks ago. It makes the ski people happy!

Here in Luton, which sits in a valley of the Chiltern Hills, we had a very chilly day. The evening brought the snow. The flurries came without warning, creeping silently across the hills in the darkness of the early evening.

Does the UK usually get much snow during the winter? It almost sounds as though you will be getting a lot of it this winter, if the early arrival is any indication.

When I lived in the Highlands of Scotland we had a saying, if it snowed in October, then you could expect snow on and off until April. During the twenty years I lived in Keith that was proved right on three occasions! One year I recall, we lost power on Christmas eve and the electricity supply wasn't restored until three days later. The average night time temperature was -28 degrees!

Beautiful pictures, Jenny. Good thing those buildings aren't in California or they would disappear under a mud slide or perish in a forest fire.
Ahad's description was so vivid you could see it in your mind.
Shelagh, tell those kids in Scotland a snowman is supposed to have a head, a top hat and a carrot sticking out of its mouth.

We also had our first snow today, a mere dusting. In this part of the world it often comes earlier. A few miles to the north in parts of the snowbelt they were supposed to get 8 to 12 inches. Lake effect snows hit their peak from now until the first of December. I can take up to about 18 inches but above that it can be inconvenient. An advantage of living in the secondary snowbelt (or the primary) is that the plows and salt trucks are parked beside the roads with motors running before it ever arrives.

Wonderful pictures Jenny! I remember those winters; they seemed to last forever.

You forgot to mention the lap top, Dick. Here's a snowman in Aberdeen checking his emails:

We don't really get snow here on the southwest coast. If it does snow, it doesn't settle. It's such a rare treat to see a blanket of snow on the ground that I filmed it when it happened four years ago, and now we make do with watching the film every winter and yearning for it to happen again.

The other night it snowed in Northern Wisconsin. It was about three inches and settled on all the pine trees and was quite beautiful.

One early October we had to shovel snow off our pier before we took it out.

Carol

Last year I took a video of "winter wonderland" in the Northwoods and my husband put it on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdXv65Bto8Y

Carol

Oh, I'd love to have snow like that. I haven't seen snow like that for about eight years. And the last really deep snow we had... so deep that cars were being abandoned all over the place and parts of it came up above my knees, was in 1990 I think. I remember clearing the drive and it took me three hours to do it. We lived in the Midlands then though... it probably still didn't settle down here.

I have a sudden urge to put up a Christmas tree now.

It's been dry here. I've been up telemark skiing about 10 times already this year, but we really could use some of that snow. However, it is still early in the season so I'm not worried.

The last time it snowed here in N. Florida, we rolled up the entire front yard and made a snowman less than a foot tall. Impressive.

Beautiful pictures!!!