"Ken Cook" wrote in message
ups.com...
On 14 Aug, 07:15, Alan White wrote:
On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:25:03 -0700, Tudor Hughes
wrote:

It's a valley bottom site just off Strathspey and something
of a frost hollow.

I did wonder but the 1:50,000 contours didn't seem to support it, the
valley bottom being about 230 metres.

Lagganlia first appeared in the 1970's in the COL (Climatological
Observers' Link) magazine. For those of us old enough to remember, it
was run by the same person who ran the Inverdruie (by Aviemore) COL
site. I think his name was Ian Hudson. Perhaps older COL members will
remember..
He was also involved with the Glenmore Lodge outward bound site as far
as I recall.

I certainly remember Iain Hudson ...especially his very comprehensive
account of the early-September snowfall in Aberdeenshire in 1976,
annotated with incredibly detailed, yet perfectly readable, manuscript
diagrams.

It seems entirely in character that he should have established other
climat. stations in the region. I've checked the book, and note that
Lagganlia was an official climat.station between 1972 and 1987,
the authority being given successively as Mr J.Paisley in 1975,
1978 and 1981, and Mr D.Craig in 1987.

I remember 21 August 1973 as well ...it was my first day of
full-time employment! ... at Edgbaston Observatory. We'd had five
days of hot and sunny weather the previous week, and it stayed
fair and warm for a few more days, but a (dry) cold front moved
southwards across the country on the 20th followed by a mobile
cold anticyclone which had originally developed over northeast
Greenland. Air frost was reported from most inland sites (of which
there were a large number in the early-70s) from Sutherland down
to Perthshire and Angus.

Lagganlia was the pre-eminent summer frost-hollow in those
days (it did slightly less well in winter), and the favourable
natural topography was probably helped by dense coniferous
woodland on three sides, including down the Feshie valley,
and that would have provided an effective barrier to the
katabatic flow.

Philip