shuggee

12.2ºC Cold start. Warm settled weather starting weekend of 14/15 and well above average after that.

Same again this evening - worth a look north if you have clear skies from northern England northward. Thick cloud here.

Scottish magnetometer went off the scale around 1am - aurora overhead. Like you PM - clouded out here, and no access to a car last night

Anybody in Northern England northward got clear skies? Negative Bz at -10 and this mapping from NOAA:

Interesting wee video there PM

Took a drive along the south banks of the Forth today, it being a public holiday in Edinburgh. Forth Bridge (now without any scaffolding - hopefully for thirty years) Blackness castle Taken on my Samsung Galaxy S phone.

No way! You mean this website with the dramatic youtube video, doom-mongering headlines and quite amazing mood music was wrong?! I can't believe it.

Conspiracy confirmed (says scientist*) All this talk of missing data from the sun suggests that it is comet Elinin and the Dwarf planet that is hiding behind the comet ready to bring widespread floods, earthquakes and destruction. We need to be told what is really going on - afterall none of us are ever shown any respect by Governments and so-called scientific agencies, in that we all possess something called a memory and can use this little acknowledged skill of recall to remember how many conspiracies and world-dooming events have been covered up by the scientific establishment. *The person quoted may not actually be a scientist, in fact they are more likely to be a guy sat in his bedroom who can make youtube videos.

Looks like it encountered Earth just as you finished typing that PM! Scottish magnetometer was in the amber zone 8am - 12 noon.

All the data we have that can inform a judgement is in this thread CH: http://forum.netweat...sources-thread/ GeorgeWx has posted in the past with an interesting observation on the data in the first post in that thread - the dial showing the Bz component. A couple of hours ago that was showing -10. And lo and behold the Crookstown magnetometer (run by Lancaster Uni Physics) went bananas. It appears to me at least that if you have a KP index above 3 or 4, and the Bz is wildly negative, then someone somewhere in the UK will have a chance at seeing the aurora - weather and time of day permitting. So many variables!!

Crookstown magnetometer now back in the green zone after the red spike triggering the alert. Grey skies all around but blue overhead at the moment...

Latest NMM hi res cloudcover for midnight tonight:

Here you go kar - tomorrow night midnight:

For the record and future reference from Potty:

Back edge of the ppn reaching Edinburgh now - it'll be sunshining for a wee while at Murrayfield on the telly I think.

Just in case there's anybody interested and experiencing a clear sky, perhaps worth looking north for possible aurora:

Clear here - but after today the thought of getting out there again is too much. Bugger.

A balanced and well presented outlook for me.

Thanks CR. Pretty photos indeed and a good use of the plural of aurora there Be interesting to hear if this marks a particular point in the solar cycle.

Anyway, back in the real world, the long hiatus of any discernable solar/aurora activity is becoming a bit dullsville. Any news George?

Network Rail cleared 856 fallen trees today across the Scottish network. That's quite a statistic...

Confirmed on Newsnight Scotland that central Scotland was at the receiving end of a 'sting jet' this morning.

Alex Hill, cogent as ever. Confirmed that we experienced a 'sting jet' this morning - watch that term suddenly become part of the public consciousness. Good to hear.

Newsnight Scotland on now - weather time!

Here's the latest re Waverley station from a rail enthusiast forum I follow BM: