Parents may not love a snow day, and commuters certainly don’t, but our archive photos show that wintry weather has been bringing unbridled joy to north-east youngsters for decades.
There was nothing quite like the anticipation of sitting by the radio waiting to hear your school was shut for the day.
As well as schoolkids hitting the slopes with sledges, our nostalgic photos show the indefatigable Aberdeen Corporation bus drivers ploughing on whatever the weather.
In years gone by, snow in January was a given – it was much deeper and the cold snaps lasted much longer.
Snow cut communities off for weeks
And it certainly was not fun. Drifting snow could cut off some north-east communities like Corgarff for weeks on end.
It’s been 40 years since a particularly nasty cold spell hit the region, claiming the lives of three men who got trapped in the snow in three separate incidents.
In January 1984, rural communities suffered as phone lines were down and roads were blocked for days on end.
Theresa Cook who lived near Keithhall, Inverurie, was trapped in her home for three days with no power, telephone and was running low in food.
Meanwhile her husband was stranded in Inverurie unable to get back to their rural cottage.
Desperate, she told the EE: “I used my last match to light a fire and attract the attention of people across the field.”
On the other side of Aberdeenshire, more than 100 skiers were snowed in at the Lecht.
Men, women and children were stuck at the Lecht Ski Centre for three nights when the road became impassable.
Even a snowblower had to turn back as blizzards topped up dangerous drifts.
Eventually at 4am on January 24, there was a break in the weather and a snowplough cleared the way for cars to reach the Allargue Arms at Corgarff.
From there, snowploughs and the police slowly escorted the convoy of dozens of vehicles through Strathdon to safety.
And in remote parts of the Highlands, the RAF were drafted in to drop food parcels as part of Operation Snowdrop.
Gallery: Nostalgic snow days in pictures
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