The UK is completely without snow for the first time in over a decade. Snow typically sticks around throughout the year at Garbh Choire Mor on Braeriach in the Cairngorms. But this year the last patch of snow, known as the Sphinx, has totally melted. It’s the first time the island has been completely snowless since 2006.
The Sphinx is typically the last patch of snow in the Highlands because of its position on a north facing slope.
It is only the seventh time in the last 300 years that Scotland and the UK has been without snow. The records show that the Sphinx has melted in 1933, 1953, 1959, 1996, 2003 and 2006.
The snow patch, named after the rock climb directly above it, has been a reliable fixture observed by generations of mountaineers and naturalists. When it vanished in 1933, the Scottish Mountaineering Club felt compelled to write a letter to the Times newspaper, pointing out that such a thing “had never been known before”.
Scotland had a very poor winter with mild temps and very little snow.