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Ellie Harrison opens a special Countryfile episode all about our uniquely British winter weather from the top of Cairn Gorm in the Scottish Highlands, 1,309 metres above sea level. Few places in Britain have weather that changes as quickly and dramatically as at the top of this mountain, as Ellie discovers when she encounters snow, glimpses the stunning scenery during a break in the clouds and is almost blown off the summit!

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Winter in the UK is a season of great beauty and occasionally great disruption.Ìý Julia Bradbury heads to Wendover Woods to meet Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú weatherman John Hammond to find out why.Ìý With the use of an army of props, John explains how our unique position in the world means we sit under a battlefront of competing air masses.Ìý Travelling from the Winter Olympics in Sochi, to Greenland, and back to the UK, Julia learns why our winters are the way they are. Finally, with the use of a warm jacket potato John explains why farmers are able to grow some of our favourite vegetables all year round - even when there is snow on the ground.

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Matt Baker’s finding out how tough root vegetables like carrots and parsnips are harvested during our coldest winter months.Ìý But the versatile carrot doesn’t stop at being boiled beside a Sunday roast, grated into coleslaw or even turned into cake - it makes a perfect wind instrument too!ÌýÌý A group of professional musicians have formed the London Vegetable Orchestra, turning carrots and other veg into musical instruments. Matt gets to craft his own carrot recorder and join the group in a special performance of ‘Build Me Up Butternut’.

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For the Winter Special, Adam Henson has left the Cotswold countryside and travelled to a North Cornish beach. Local surfer and ocean scientist Dom Clarke demonstrates how the huge waves and dramatic tides, caused by the recent stormy weather, have washed ashore secrets from the sea. They are then joined by Dom’s friend Susie Ray who teaches Adam how to turn treasures from sea into works of art, by using an old Japanese fisherman’s technique.

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Richard Taylor-Jones has filmed wildlife all over the world and in the process has developed a host of skills for capturing intimate shots of animal behaviour. This week, Countryfile has challenged Richard to film three animals iconic of winter in the Scottish Highlands. Richard not only succeeds but manages to capture his ‘big three’ in a single day. And the animals in question? The adorable red squirrel, majestic red deer stag and the small but spectacular crested tit.

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Chris Townsend is a man who likes to walk, and once he starts he’ll keep going until he runs out of land! He has completed endurance walks across deserts and frozen seas but, for him, there is nowhere as rich in natural beauty, and as challengingly unpredictable, as the Scottish mountains. Countryfile follows Chris for 24 hours as he treks across his beloved Cairngorms, facing strong winds and spotting a large group of Britain’s hardiest bird, the ptarmigan, before camping out under the stars.

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The temperature in the Scottish Highlands can drop to well below freezing during the winter, which means that freshwater lochs, even large ones, can completely freeze over! Ellie canoes part of the river Spey to Loch Insh, a hub of watersport activity in the summer. ÌýShe is joined by local ranger Duncan MacDonald, who shows her that, despite the freezing temperatures, there is still life there. In fact it is a refuge from the more extreme weather of Iceland and Greenland, so huge numbers of swans and geese flock here. Ellie also does a spot of pond dipping and discovers some even more unusual life in these winter waters.

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