their appearance is changing dramatically as the glacial ice that marks their summit melts away, all within the lifetime of the people who live in their shadow. we used to wake up in the morning and time that specific hour in the morning where you would be able to see the glacier in its shining form. but now you can just wake up and see it. that is one visible change, one actual change that you can see. instead of seeing the snow, you see that the mountain has gone grey like that. there is no glacier any more. you only have to go to specific places now to be able to view it, and at particular times. hydrogeologist richard taylor, who has co led expeditions to the rwenzori, says because temperatures show little seasonal variability here, the disappearing glaciers are a clear sign of climate change. ice fields in the tropics have a generally stable ice mass in the absence of changing climate, just because of that, if you will call it, seasonal stability and temperature.
the ice maker has water sprayed in a thin layer on the inside, which is then peeled off with a reamer and falls to a lower part where it s blown out through the pipe onto the slope. that s how it all works. shall we take a look at what it s like on the slopes? let s go see. so, mikey, this is the result, then, these huge mounds of snow here. just how much snow has been made? they ve been going about a month or so. the factory produces four tonnes an hour, so in just under a month that s about 3000 tonnes. once they are in these big piles here, what do you do with it? it s a big mountain to cover. very much so. we spread it out using specialised piece machines which push the snow around. when it gets mixed up it s a lot easier to push. are you predicting you ll be making snow throughout the season, or are you hopeful you might be able to turn it off at some point? we make snow up until our opening day. from then on we proceed untiljanuary and then it depends on the scottish climate. and
still mild across the far south seven degrees. but otherwise a frost is going to be quite widespread, particularly in the countryside. so a cold start to the day on tuesday. we will have frequent snow showers, accumulations maybe around two to five centimetres here. more on the highest ground. and the winds could get very strong for a time towards the middle part of the day, particularly in 0rkney where we could get gusts of 60, maybe 70 mph for a time, so very blustery. temporary blizzard conditions over the higher ground in scotland as well. wintry showers moving down the irish sea to the north of wales, north west england. could see a little bit of sleet or snow mixed in with some of those but the lion s share of the snow showers will be across scotland, that s where we will see most of the accumulations. for wednesday there will be further showers coming down the eastern coasts of scotland and england,
instead, the global community only lectures and berates countries like india. our time here on cairngorm is almost up, but before we go, the team have lent me a pair of skis so i can feel for myselfjust how good the snow is here. ruari, you re the senior countryside ranger here, so how do you get an accurate reading of snow depth? first of all, down at car park level we have a stevenson screen and we have been recording weather data there since pre 1980, so we have scales, centimetre and metre sticks, to record the snow. but historically, actually, the people on the hill know how deep the snow is. sometimes you can come up and the hill is covered in snow, and then a night of wind and it has been windswept clean. it changes literally every day. there is plenty of snow around at the moment. is this a promising situation for the start of the season? it s promising. it is promising that we ve had a good lot of snow. the ground has started to cool down as well,
we are also enhancing our pumps and drainage systems so that we can get water away more quickly and keep the infrastructure working. lilli matson, thank you forjoining us on this edition of weather world. one of the biggest storms to hit the uk in 2021 came at the end of november, as storm arwen brought damaging winds of up to 98mph. falling trees caused widespread disruption, with this one narrowly missing a drinker as it crashed into the back of a pub in wales. tens of thousands of trees came down in the worst affected parts of scotland and north east england and power was lost to more than 200,000 homes. now to some of your weather watcher pictures, showing the snow that followed storm arwen, which was unusually heavy and widespread for the time of year, particularly across northern england, and compounded the problem for those people that had lost power and heat to their homes. but despite the cold end to the season, overall the uk had its third warmest autumn on record, and the wa