Scotland/Alba weather discussion - Jan 2021 onwards

[Northernlights]

After a week of strong southerly winds and little rain ground conditions are rapidly improving.Young Mr Northernlights has been moving on with stone removal and cultivating tracks.  Wonderful frost mould after the cold spell earlier in the month. Mild today at 13c maximum and daffs breaking surface now. Been vaccinating  young female cattle today for B.V.D. Frost can really kick start the drying process but being on the right of the mountains with a southerly wind helps too.Tractors starting to appear in surrounding fields.

 

[Hairy Celt]

Quite nice out today.

[Quinach]

48 minutes ago, Northernlights said:

Young Mr Northernlights has been moving on with stone removal

Back in the days when we lived in Texas, for a time we worked out of San Antonio.  Always remember watching a massive stone crushing machine work a field near there, bit like this but on a even grander scale.  Usually the soils there are very stony (bit like the glacial till round here) but what a wonderful looking soil it seemed to produce with the rocks crushed to broad bean size at most.  Speaking to the farmer, he said the machine dug/pulverised the soil down to about 14 inches which I thought was pretty impressive.  I thought it would be a once in a lifetime job but apparently they do it every 25 years or so after deep plowing due to hardpan/caliche issues.  Never seen that kind of machine here, suspect expense and practicality to the fore there.

Meanwhile, another record breaking temperature for the year here topping out at 11.9c.  Again very gusty winds spoiled the show, making it feel a lot less than that.  Dry and good periods of sunshine.  More of the same please, but with less wind!

Nice sunset again.

[Eastern Scotland WX]

1 hour ago, Hawesy said:

Evening all,

Aside from the glorious week of wintry conditions, February has been dire in terms of weather here with rainfall sitting at around 220% of normal and sunshine just 47% of normal. The monthly  mean temperature now sitting at -0.4c. (All figures Leuchars). Still I would take the three weeks of crap for one memorable snowy spell all over again! 

Certainly looks drier as we head into March. I’ll soon be on haar watch 

Waking up to Haar makes me physically ill. Ruins the morning. 

[Cheggers]

Today was not too bad, few blustery showers, yesterday was horrific, not looking much better tomorrow. Roll on summer, or one more wintery blast. 

[mardatha]

Not badhere yesterday, very mild. Finding the weather a lot gentler down here.

[Jo Farrow]

Good to 'see on the radar' once more, showers over the Western Isles. The Druim a’Starraig radar is back online. 

[Hairy Celt]

Day 12. Quite nice out today again, nothing controversial. Porch warmed up a bit in the sun and sweet peas are germinating now.  Bit of a breeze and the radar (fwiw) shows showers approaching from the west and fizzling out before they get here. 

[snowy owl]

Pretty windy here today , was out getting food shopping and just about blew the car door out my hand it was that windy ! 

The sun was out though and so I treated myself to a costa . I mean I’m never out these days lol this has been a first in a very long time ! It was kinda weird drinking a costa in a very empty shopping centre car park. (shhhh I did cross the Edinburgh boundary don’t tell ) 

 

[thebigyin]

Nice in the north east.  Cold breeze, but nice in the sun and there has been lots of that, and lots more then next 4 days.  Think the breeze is forecast to fall light too so good.  Noticeable day by day the stretch in daylight hours.  

Still looks a probable cool down by the end of the first week of March to back below the seasonal average.  Colder, but not that cold.  Still some -10 breaches in the ensembles in outer reaches, in fact a couple as soon as a week's time.  Not much support - yet!

 

[Puffy MacCloud]

A couple of years ago I rebuilt the Land Rover on a new galvanised chassis and treated it to new suspension and steering units. This year, as is only fair, I'm treating the comfy car to new performance parts for the engine and new struts for the air suspension. It's almost complete so I went up to Glasgow this afternoon to check on the work being done. I can therefore testify that the wind conditions are thus: southerly and strong, strong enough to make the northerly journey over the moor uncannily placid and the southerly one almost deafening in a soft top Land Rover. And very slow. Still, it was dry and bright, occasionally sunny, and altogether very pleasant to be out in.

Temperature 6.7deg.C down from a maximum of 9.0deg.C at 13:35 and up from a minimum of 5.0deg.C at 08:07, humidity is 82%, wind has died away to nothing from a maximum gust of 16mph southerly at 12:00, pressure is 1027.5hPa rising fast, there's been 1.4mm of rain in the early morning and cloud cover has generally been around 3/8.

[Hairy Celt]

49 minutes ago, Puffy MacCloud said:

A couple of years ago I rebuilt the Land Rover on a new galvanised chassis and treated it to new suspension and steering units. This year, as is only fair, I'm treating the comfy car to new performance parts for the engine and new struts for the air suspension. It's almost complete so I went up to Glasgow this afternoon to check on the work being done. I can therefore testify that the wind conditions are thus: southerly and strong, strong enough to make the northerly journey over the moor uncannily placid and the southerly one almost deafening in a soft top Land Rover. And very slow. Still, it was dry and bright, occasionally sunny, and altogether very pleasant to be out in.

Temperature 6.7deg.C down from a maximum of 9.0deg.C at 13:35 and up from a minimum of 5.0deg.C at 08:07, humidity is 82%, wind has died away to nothing from a maximum gust of 16mph southerly at 12:00, pressure is 1027.5hPa rising fast, there's been 1.4mm of rain in the early morning and cloud cover has generally been around 3/8.

Trying to guess what the comfy car is... If it's worth upgrading the engine and replacing suspension, hmmm, as well as being called primarily comfy? 

My first guess is Jag.

[Puffy MacCloud]

It's not worth it. I just want to.

[Hairy Celt]

1 hour ago, Puffy MacCloud said:

It's not worth it. I just want to.

Vauxhall Chevette then.

[Puffy MacCloud]

Smarty pants.

(slightly soiled)

[shuggee]

55 plate Fiat 500?

Might make an air frost tonight... And 7 days time might be 'interesting'? 

[Quinach]

Just broke the double digit barrier today with a max of 10.1c.

Plenty of sunshine but not as strong as yesterday thanks to a lot of high level cloud, for example...

In there somewhere are some military jets.  Plenty of airforce activity round here today which is unusual as they tend to avoid here due to the proximity of Aberdeen Airport.

Nagging strong cold wind again making a unwelcome appearance, though good for the wind generators.

Down to 2.2c now, so possibly the first air frost for over a week - the crystal clear skies at the moment will help this, pity no aurora is forecast.

Edit - just read this article, fascinating and alarming considering the possible effect on the climate here - Atlantic Ocean circulation at weakest in a millennium, say scientists

Edited February 25, 2021 by Quinach
Added article

[Cheggers]

Citreon DS..? 

Another day of sun, showers and wind. 

2 weeks ago we were drooling when we saw weather like this rolling in. 

 

[Sanserit]

Lovely trip over to Inverurie when I got a call from the vets there to say that my cat had been handed in after 10 weeks on the run - Banchory is around 20 miles from Inverurie I think.  He's now enjoying lockdown 2021 feline edition!

Some fantastic cloudscapes at sunset but as I was in the car, I wasn't able to take any photos I'm afraid.

High today of 13.0c to go with the clear skies but fallen away to 1.9c now, lowest temperature of the week so far.  Ground is drying out nicely, fingers crossed that continues.

[Hairy Celt]

Phantom?

I put air dampers on a Guzzi T4 a long time ago, they made all the difference.  The fork springs were way too stiff though and I couldn't afford the air loaded replacements. Also the linked brakes were not that brilliant, but the engine was much better than expected - loads of top end power.... ah, those were the days.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Hairy Celt

[mardatha]

Good to hear about the wee cat sanserit, ours in an indoor cat but I still worry about her getting out and vanishing.  Lovely gold sunrise in my kitchen window this morning, really nice start to the day. We're supposed to be starting the landscaping today. Wish me luck Kilties and if the husband vanishes then you'll know he asked for it.

And a patio would be nice anyway.

[Penicuikblizzard]

Maybe just maybe one last visit from the NE before winter bows out

[Ravelin]

A very pleasant feeling sunny day outside, not much more than I can say than that. Noticed on the dog walk yesterday afternoon that there's very little snow left on the surrounding hills now, only hanging on where it's been both drifted and shaded. Haven't been up the hill on the forestry tracks since last Saturday though, they might still be hanging on to more.

[Quinach]

Glorious day. 

9.4c and climbing after a overnight low of -1.1c.  Unbroken sunshine and calm conditions, the latter allowing it to feel warm outside as the sun now packs a bit of a punch around midday.

Sunlounger going to get an airing me thinks

[Hairy Celt]

Full sun all day here and quite warm early afternoon.  Plenty hot water from the panels.

Colder mornings next week apparently.

Lesser celandine flowering nicely locally.