Cold night in Sutherland
There was a slight frost at both Altnaharra and Kinbrace in Sutherland last night, not bad going for the 7th of July and the height of summer, but with sub 546 dam 1000-500 hPa partial thicknesses …
Observations
Sunny day in Lerwick
Despite a cloudy evening Lerwick still managed 14.6 hours of sunshine yesterday (15th of June) to be the sunniest place in IONA. Sunrise is at 0238 UTC and sunset 2132 UTC so there is almost 19 …
Snow in June
Snow on the mountains of Scotland in June, not unheard of, but quite a contrast to the warm spell that we saw at the end of May. Low Juliane is making her effects felt across the …
Did Benson’s rain gauge have a spiders nest in it after all?
I was perusing the 24 hour rainfall totals for the UK, as you do, and noticed that this mornings Benson observation for 06 UTC failed to report a 24 hour (06-06 UTC) total. They did however …
Did Benson’s rain gauge have a spiders nest in it after all? Read More »
Yesterday’s sea breeze along the Moray coast
Well yesterday’s sea breeze did finally come ashore along the Moray coast, but it left it till well after 16 UTC at Lossiemouth and at nearby Kinloss it never really managed to shake it off at …
Hurn closes in on record for sunniest May
The sunshine total so far this month is 295.5 hours at Hurn, aka Bournemouth airport, is fast closing in on the May record of 317.4 hours set in 1989. So can it close the gap of …
Amphan makes landfall
Cyclone Amphan made landfall on Tuesday evening south of Calcutta. The closest SYNOP report from that part of India in this plotted 12 UTC chart for today is from the city of Dum Dum in West …
Katesbridge the icebox of Northern Ireland does it again
The 18-06 minimum at Katesbridge county Down last night was a remarkably low -6.1°C and according to the Met Office it was close to the all time Northern Ireland extreme minimum for May of -6.5°C. It’s …
Katesbridge the icebox of Northern Ireland does it again Read More »
See the cold front
It’s not that often that you can trace the cold front in both the weather radar and satellite images as well as in the plotted observations so clearly, but you can with today’s that’s currently close …
Bingley 15.1°C colder than at the same time yesterday
The temperature at 12 UTC yesterday at Bingley in West Yorkshire was 20.9°C, just twenty four hours later at 12 UTC today the temperature was just 5.8°C, making it 15.1°C colder. Looking further afield across the …
Bingley 15.1°C colder than at the same time yesterday Read More »
The merry month of May
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it snow in May, but as I write the snow is swirling down again from another shower in Strathpeffer (40 metres AMSL). The air temperature before the shower …
Cold days in May
Just looking back at some cold May days from the archives and I came across the second of May 1979, I can’t recall the cold start to that May, but the synoptic situation looks similar to …
Another one of those grass frosts across Scotland
The new breed of Met Office ‘forecaster’ either get the terminology wrong or the forecast and sometimes both. Perhaps I’m being too hard on them, because the NWP mesoscale hourly forecast temperatures for overnight was even …
Another one of those grass frosts across Scotland Read More »
April 2020 sunniest on record – but just how do they measure it?
The Met Office yesterday tweeted that new provisional information suggests that April 2020 is now the sunniest on record with 212.5 hours of sunshine have been recorded so far, beating the previous record of 211.9 hours …
April 2020 sunniest on record – but just how do they measure it? Read More »
Today’s maximum anomalies, the sea breeze and a diurnal range of 23.2°C at Aviemore.
The highest maximum temperature anomaly today [06-18] was at Herstmonceux in Sussex at +10.0°C above the 1981-2010 LTA, this was closely followed by Aviemore (+9.5°C) and Loch Glascarnoch (+9.3°C) in the Highlands. The sea breeze didn’t …
Today’s maximum anomalies, the sea breeze and a diurnal range of 23.2°C at Aviemore. Read More »
Scotland features strongly in top twenty of sunniest places in last week
At long last we have something to shout about with this fine spell of weather in Scotland. Scotland may not have been the warmest spot in the last week, but it certainly can boast about being …
Scotland features strongly in top twenty of sunniest places in last week Read More »
Air Frosts: 1 October 2019 – 22 April 2020
These climate stats that I used to produce these charts are based on the 18-06 UTC minimum temperatures as reported in the 06 UTC SYNOP reports. I occasionally miss a report or two, so I can’t …
19-21 April 2020 – Highest gusts
Not quite as windy today across the country, but the easterly was certainly funneling up the strath here in Strathpeffer this afternoon, adding air brakes to our cycle home to slow us down as we were …
Measuring sunshine accuracy across Europe
Q Is it possible that places with a lower latitude and shorter day such as Schleswig yesterday for example can report higher sunshine values than stations further north such as Kinloss on the same equally sunny …
Lee low
Plenty of lee wave effects across the north of Scotland this afternoon visible on both the plotted chart and in satellite imagery, and some very low dew point air coming down off the Cairngorms with relative …
Absolutely glorious day
Despite a temperature of only 7°C at lunchtime, it felt just like a summers day in the garden up here, in strong sunshine and only light winds. The only reason I know that is because Mrs …
Manston 15.6°C cooler than yesterday
Many places in the southeast between ten and fifteen degrees colder at 12 UTC than they were on Easter Sunday at the same time.
