Benvironment

-0.4C. Difficult to tell how much has fallen 'cause the wind is whipping it around so much. Lovely to wake up to! Biggest (and frankly, pretty much only) snowfall since February last year.

Topped out at 19.7C here. That's the warmest day since 30th September!

10.5C, calm and with blue skies. Beautifully warm in the sunshine. I'd be perfectly happy with this all summer. Don't really need 20C and humidity so long as there's not much wind.......but therein lies the problem with Scotland I suppose.

Not much to see here in terms of wildflowers yet. Lesser Celandine and Coltsfoot.....but that's about it. Saw a confused peacock butterfly a month ago.

Bit of everything today. Snow.....even short-lived....is always nice to see. Things even went white for a spell as the heaviest stuff got dumped, and the temperature dropped from 5C to 0.5C in the space of 15 minutes or so. The sad take on that.....is that the dusting it left is probably the most substantial dumping here since December. God-awful!

Ah the sound of gale force winds ripping through keyholes and window vents. It's 2011 all over again.

Hmm.....I am poised to do just that if this mildness keeps up.

Heaviest snow I've seen here all winter. <sobs>

BEAUTIFUL day today! Just been over East Lomond and it's still, calm and warm in the sunshine. I've heard the first skylarks this year, seen a pair of short-eared owls, a flock of bullfinches......yep, very very nice Plus I found what must surely be the only patch of snow in Fife. Depressingly, that's the deepest snow I've seen in these parts since January 2011.

Proximity to continental Europe I suppose? The synoptics that bring this kind of cold in winter would bring warm weather in summer. Either way, we're at the wrong end of the island.....or the right end, depending on your point of view ;-)

Yesterday finally yielded an ice day here. First one in 14 months. It's god-awful outside just now though - wet, cold, grey......and practically every surface is coated in ice. I don't think I've ever seen proper freezing rain before. Scary!

-0.6C.....and light rain is already laying down an icy sheen on EVERYTHING outside. Glad I don't need to go anywhere tomorrow morning,

-0.7C here and hasn't been above freezing yet. Hopefully it'll stay cold up until midnight to give me the first ice day since.....oooo.....December 2010 I think! I imagine it will be snatched away in the final hours though.

I've noticed recently that I've made an unplanned return to looking only for hill snow rather than it snowing at home. That's how I spent most winters up until 2009.....before those last few winters came along with their welcome weirdness. I can remember only ever caring if it snowed on the hills, as that was enough for me as I just wanted to be slogging through snowy coires and over snowy ridges. So now that I'm back in pre-2009 mode I actually feel quite liberated PS - oh and I've been meaning to ask, why is it that putting a ; followed by a ), y'know to show a winky-type comment, results in a hideous gargoyle pulling faces at people? <looks confused>

I know what you mean. What use is anything over 20C in this country where the humidity kills you? Summer days in Scotland can be beautiful if it's hovering around 15C with sunny skies and a chill breeze. That'll do me! I suppose it's the endless rain that winds people up........but I just see summer as something to be suffered, so the weather can do what it likes provided it doesn't nudge over 20C. And I know folk moan about not getting enough light in the winter......but they really should get off their arses and make the best of it. My friends are miserable as sin in that regard. Moan moan moan. I feel so much more invigorated by a six hour dose of snow-reflected sunshine than a whole midsummer day's dose of midgey, cleggy, ticky, humid hazy sunshine. Like today for instance. Up Ben Lawers in the sunshine. I'm positively glowing 0.2C here now. Some snow still on the ground from Saturday I presume ( I was down south).

By pure coincidence, I'm heading down to the Cotswolds tomorrow. Usually it snows up here whenever I head south.....but could this be perfect timing for a change? In other news, this morning was the coldest it's been here since December 2010! -4.5C around 8am. Still haven't had an ice day though since....erm....December 2010 I think, as the temperature briefly nudged up to 0.5C for 20 minutes or so this afternoon. Perishing cold now though. Currently down to -2.7C. I was up Schiehallion this afternoon. Bloody nora the wind was cold up there!

Very fine drizzly snow here for the last hour or so.....but not amounting to anything.

Oh and it was sleeting not so long ago. Forgot to mention!

Yep it's been the same here. Occasionally down at -0.2C or something like that......but for the most part above freezing. 1.2C just now.

Calm and frosty. Again. YAY! I have to say, it's a real pleasure having proper cold mornings EVERY morning at the moment. It at least feels like winter now. The bird feeders have seen a population explosion in the last few days........hanging over the snowdrops that are well and truly in flower. Madness.

Had some graupel here a wee while ago......but just dandruff really.

<groans> Heading waaaaaaay down south for a few days. I'll be gutted if I miss something interesting.

<faints>

The failure of short-term memory in there is what I can't understand. Every other day it's tears and tantrums, interspersed with joy and ecstasy on the intermediate days. You'd think folk would remember that the previous low point was followed by a high point.....and a low point....and a high point....and so on and so on. Bonkers! Hysteria. Gotta love it.

Had enough mm's this morning to render the scene white outside. About bloody time! Sure it will be gone by the time I get home.