A patch of snow which is said to be the UK’s longest-lasting has melted for only the eighth time in three centuries, raising fresh fears over climate change.
The snow pocket, known as the Sphinx, at Braeriach in the Cairngorms — which is renowned for its lack of sunlight — has been an enduring feature on the country’s third largest mountain. However, Iain Cameron, who monitors snow on Scotland’s peaks, confirmed it has disappeared. According to records the Sphinx has melted fully only in 1933, 1959, 1996, 2003, 2006, 2017 and 2018.
Prior to the 20th century it is thought to have last melted completely in the 1700s. Cameron said milder weather, instigated by global warming, seemed to be the logical explanation for the increased rate of melting.
“What we are seeing from research are smaller and fewer patches of snow,” he told BBC Scotland. “Less snow is falling now in winter than in the Eighties and even the Nineties.”
A report commissioned by Cairngorms National Park Authority, published last year, said declining snow cover and fewer days when it snowed had been observed on Cairngorm mountain since the winter of 1983-84.
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Researchers also noted a trend for increasingly warmer weather since the Sixties and suggested that by the 2080s there would be some years with very little or no snow at all on Cairngorm.
