Richard2901

Another thoroughly unpleasant day giving a fitting end to one of the most disgusting months of awful weather ever witnessed in this area. Steady rain all night and throughout the morning giving a total of 14.4mm which, despite being a far from impressive total, made today the wettest day since 16th September 2011. After it dried up it remained dull and cloudy with featureless cloud and, needless to say, cold with a maximum of 8.9C. Even that was only reached late on - was around 7C or lower for much of the day. It has been clear to the east for some time but it is remaining cloudy over land with no sunshine registered despite some blue sky appearing every now and again.

Some long overdue dry and sunny weather here this weekend, yesterday and today each having over 9 hours of sun. Temperatures remained well below average though with a max of 8.8C yesterday and 9.0C today, the lowest maxes I can recall for sunny days this late in the season. It has not reached 10C since the 17th and today was the 18th consecutive day of below average maximum temperatures. Today would have been the only the 4th dry day of the month but it seems more rain is on the way later tonight. Currently 5.7C and cloudy.

A lovely start to the day with clear blue skies first thing for the first time since March. Unfortunately it soon degenerated into another horrible day as a rainband moved in from the north in the middle of the morning resulting in a prolonged period of rain which lasted until early afternoon. As is always the case nowadays the rain was of light intensity so totalled just 1.8mm with a peak rate of only 2.6mm/hr. Rest of the afternoon was mostly cloudy with a few sunny spells and drizzle showers. Temperature reached 8.7C in the morning sunshine but fell to a cold 5.2C in the rain just after noon before peaking at 8.9C once it dried up. Sun total was 5.8 hours so still awaiting the first 6 hour total of the month and that was the daily average in March!

Decent summers have been over for the past 14 years in this part of the country. It was not in 2007 that the awful summers began but as long ago as 1998. There has been a big change in synoptics resulting in southerly tracking lows being much more common and Eastern Scotland is suffering the most as we get vile northerly and easterly winds giving copious rainfall instead of westerlies and south westerlies keeping us in the rain shadow. My defintion of a decent summer is one that is sunnier and drier than average. Since 1998 only 2003 meets that criteria. 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2007-11 in particular have been dreadful especially 2007 and 2011. I see 80s summers like 1986 and 1988 often highlighted as exceptionally poor summers but they produced 3 decent months between them here compared to a grand total of zero decent months across the 8 dire summers listed above.

Nothing of interest to report here. Lots of convective clouds which were very dark at times suggesting a heavy downpour was on the way but ended up with nothing more than a few spots of rain. A more prolonged drizzly shower around 6pm gave out 0.2mm which as far as I'm concerned is the worst rain total to get. Yet to see a dry day this month and may have a long wait to see one by the looks of things. Close to 6 hours of sun which makes it the sunniest day of a dire April so far and only the 2nd day of the month to even get as much as 3 hours. No interest from the temperatures either. Fairly mild last night with a min of 4.7C and a near average max of 11.1C today.

Dismal, overcast and drizzly for the 8th day out of 9. Only difference is it's mild and grey instead of cold and grey. Temp has reached 12.8C. 0.8mm of drizzle which has been of insufficient intesity to even register a rain rate reading. Looking like another zero sun day. I hope we are going to see sun and showers this week. Couldn't stand another week of these hideously boring and unpleasant conditions. I've seen just 11.2 hours of sun so far in April and many daily totals in the last third of March were higher than that!

Thankfully I didn't have Good Vile Friday off work as it's been a write-off. Cold, grey and overcast all day with light drizzly rain that's barely let up . Despite that a total of only 2.6mm with a max rain rate of just 0.8mm/hr -_-. Max temp 7.8C. 3rd totally sunless day already in April which is more than there were in December! What an awful week it's been. Very cold, dismally sunless and wet. It couldn't be more of a stark contrast to the week before. I'm just grateful we're getting this rubbish now and not in March when I had several days of annual leave to use up.

An exceptional week of weather here. Unbelievable for March and easily the best spell for warmth and sunshine since July 2006 B) These are the maxes I recorded: 25th: 20.4C 26th: 20.3C 27th: 20.6C 28th: 19.8C 29th: 17.9C 30th: 18.2C Truly extraordinary and, given that the late March average is only 9C, probably rates alongside early October 1908 as the most outstanding warm spell in the past 150 years here. All the more remarkable for occurring during an era of persistent mediocrity. Also reached 18C on the 11th and 21st giving a total of 7 days in March that reached 18C compared to only 4 during the totally dire July 2011. This is despite the long term average max in July being 18.4C and in March only 8.4C. Mean max close to 13C for March here while Aboyne has recorded a mean max over 14C :o Overall my mean for the month has been 8.6C making it the second warmest March for the Aberdeen area. March 1938 remains the warmest March with a mean of 9.2C. March 1938 did not produce a spell as warm the past week but overall mean max was similar while the mean min was milder. No other Marches have come in above 8C. I've recorded close to 190 hours sunshine making it the 3rd sunniest March on record, 1894 and 2003 being slightly sunnier. Also sunnier than every summer month since July 2006 which is not surprising since we have not had a remotely decent summer month since then Max today has been just 7.2C however - some 11C down on yesterday and the first single figure max since the 7th. It has felt really unpleasant with cloudy skies, strong winds and temps stuck on 6C until the sun came out at 5pm.

Was cloudy all day yesterday only for it to miraculously clear at sunset. Was expecting the grey blanket to be in place again by this morning but it's been a lovely day. Sunny all day with a max of 18.3C Warmest day since 30th September and one of the warmest ever so early in the year. Just 0.1C off my March record for the past 7 years, recorded on the 31st in 2009. Also I might add that today was warmer than every day of the dismal second half of July 2011 :o

The winter was exceptionally snowless and frost free. Comments suggesting that it was an average UK winter are utter nonsense, I only recorded 4 days of lying snow compared to an average of almost 20. Only one post-war winter -1956/57 had less lying snow while 1991/92 had the same. Though with just 6 days of lying snow since the start of 2011 this has undoubtedly been the most snowless 14-month period ever recorded in this area By contrast there have been several winter months having over 20 days of lying snow like December 2010 - mostly in the 40s, 50s and 60s. So from a historical perspective this winter has been more unusual for its lack of snow than December 2010 was for its excess. Inland Aberdeenshire had a bit of snow in December but has been virtually snowless since mid-January and the average there is 40-60 days of lying snow. This is now the third virtually snowless winter in 6 years - reminescent of the dire days of the late 80s and early 90s and contrasting with the more normal winters between 1999 and 2006 when 6 out of 8 managed at least one spell of 7-10 consecutive days of snow cover. The 2 that didn't - 1999/2000 and 2004/05 were still snowier than 06/07,07/08 and 11/12.

Mean temp here of 9.1C for the 20th -29th Feb which is possibly the mildest final third of February on record. Mean Max was 13.0C and mean min 5.3C which is more like the average for the first half of May. Only the 24th with a max of 9.8C failed to reach at least 11.4C. Though having checked the records it would appear the final third of February 1953 was about as mild (mean temp 8.9C, mean max: 12.7C at Dyce). It was certainly a much nicer spell with almost 5 hours sun per day on average. By contrast this current spell was unusually cloudy for such synoptics, producing only 2.6 hours daily average. Overall mean for February was 5.2C making it the 2nd mildest winter month I have recorded in the past 7 years. Only February 2008 with 5.5C was milder and that is probably the only milder winter month since February 1998.

Certainly one of the most boring and uninteresting winters here. So much for it turning out to be the opposite of 2010/11. It has followed exactly the same pattern with the best of the cold and snow before Christmas and the post-Christmas period a virtual write-off. The only difference is that this winter the pre-Christmas cold was dire as well. February has been just ghastly and easily the worst month, starting with a horrible grey easterly bringing the usual static temps and nothing weather, then a cloudy mild high with drizzly atlantic muck spewing over the top of it for the middle part and now more ridiculous unseasonably mild tripe to end Normally we do quite well for sunshine from this set-up, due to the mountains breaking up the cloud, but this week has been very cloudy with less than 4 hours sunshine in the past 3 days. Yesterday the cloud cleared in late afternoon only to return by morning and today has been the same with the skies clearing just before sunset.The brief snow at the weekend has been the only weather of interest for more than a fortnight now. Just 4 days of lying snow this winter which would equal the worst I can remember (1991/92). However 2007/08 had only 1 day lying at this stage and 5 of the eventual total of 7 days came in the last week of March and during April. The lack of frost has been shocking and certainly far worse than 1991/92. I had 26 consectuive frost-free nights up to 13th January and currently have had just 1 air frost in 15 days. Current model output is truly abysmal with little if any frost likely in the next week. Last year had the least frosty late winter/spring since at least 1945 and so far this year is even worse

Winter has been very dry here. Only the lack of snow and frost has been more exceptional than the lack of rain. Winter total only 92.0mm - 54% of average - and not likely to get much more by the looks of things. Had zero today and yesterday. November also had a very low rain total so total for the 114 days since 1st Nov has been just 120.2mm or 48% average. Only 6 of those days have had as much as 5mm (3rd Nov, 8th Dec, 12th Dec, 3rd Jan, 22nd Jan, 9th Feb) and only the 8th Dec with 11.2mm had more than 10mm. Last 4 months rain totals: Nov: 28.2mm (35% of average) Dec: 40.2mm (58% of average) Jan: 33.8mm (55% of average) Feb: 18.0mm (45% of average to 22nd) I'm not in the least worried and am glad the prolonged wet spell that lasted from May 2009 to September 2011 is finally at an end. I'd be delighted to see these types of anomalies last the whole year. Very unlikely but a nearby site recorded just 396mm over a 12-month period in 1972/73 which would equate to barely half the average.

Yes the UK weather really is terrible wholly due to the lack of sunshine and high frequency of dismal grey skies. Ireland and Iceland must be the only countries in Europe that have lower sunshine averages The weather is getting worse as well. It's no longer so varied and changeable as it used to be with long periods of nothingness becoming common. This last year has been so bad up here for lack of snow, lack of frost, lack of warmth in summer, lack of any remotely interesting weather that it's akin to living on a headland in Ireland like Malin Head. Normally even in poor winters we get a decent spell of snow but this year has produced only 2 days of lying snow and a max depth of 3cm The summer temperatures are not great up here but the normal average of 18C is just about acceptable whereas last year was awful with three months of grey wet weather and an average of 16C Having said that the weather in the near continent can be just as dire. I had the misfortune of spending of spending a fortnight near Venlo in the Netherlands in July 2000 and until summer 2007 it was the worst 2 weeks of summer weather I had ever experienced. Rain and grey skies practically every day with maxes as low as 13C and down to 10C during heavy rain in the middle of the day I only take summer holidays in southern Europe now but even in Carcassonne in 2010 and Portugal last year the weather was far from brilliant though still fantastic compared to what we were getting back home at the same time.

Got down to -6.1C last night which was the lowest temp since 22nd Dec 2010 and one of the lowest I've recorded with no snow on the ground. Was sunny all day giving 7.18 hours of sun and with the sun now much stronger and visibly higher in the sky, the temp rose to 3.8C. Coldest max this winter remains 1.4C on 18th Dec and lowest this year, 2.1C last Friday. Despite the not particularly cold max temp has already fallen to -3.3C under the clear and calm conditions

The last 3 days has been the worst spell, by far, of this sorry excuse for a winter. It's gone from being windy, very sunny and dry with little frost or snow and low diurnal ranges to being windy, grey and drizzly with no frost or snow and no diurnal range at all . In the past 24 hours there's been a 0.6C range in temps from 3.2C at 4:22pm this afternoon to 3.8C at 11:19pm last night and it's currently 3.5C Overnight min of 3.3C was the joint mildest in the past 12 days and it hasn't even dropped below 1C since this easterly garbage set in. More of the same horrible rubbish forecast for overnight and tomorrow. January has been another complete write off as far as snow goes. A grand total of ZERO days with snow lying for a ridiculous 4th time in 7 years and about the 10th time since 1988. Before that it was practically unheard of to have no snow cover in January, occurring just twice in over 40 years (1964 and 1973). Days with snow lying in January for the past 8 years with max depth in brackets: 2005: 1 (2cm) 2006: 0 (0cm) 2007: 2 (2cm) 2008: 0 (0cm) 2009: 0 (0cm) 2010: 16 (19cm) 2011: 1 (<1cm) 2012: 0 (0cm) An appalling set of statistics which show, with one obvious exception, why January no longer deserves to be considered a winter month. Definitely the least snowy month between November and March these days

Just 8 air frosts here for the season - all in December. Average would be over 20 by now (including autumn). Last air frost was on 19th December. Since then the lowest temp I've recorded has been 0.0C on 30th December with +0.4C the lowest so far in January. Truly abysmal

Was forecast an air frost of -1C last night which is actually something to get excited about in this unrelentingly dire winter. However due to the wind all that happened was the temp got stuck on 3C all night with a late drop to 2.0C around sunrise http://hw.nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sleep.png Last air frost was 19th December, 18 days ago and the outlook is for more of the same unrelentless zonal tripethat has made winter so far as interesting as a coma. Had practically nothing but west or south west winds since late November and this is reflected in an astonishing total of just 3 sunless days in over 6 weeks. All you ever get here with this zonal set up is wind and sun – very little rain, frost or snow. Nothing of interest for winter and an insult after another dire summer in which wind from the SW quarter was virtually absent. Looks like we could easily make close to 4 weeks without an air frost which would be the worst spell of winter weather since 1988/89. In fact it’s probably even worse than that because back then it was far more pleasant -exceptionally mild with highs often in double figures and scarcely below 8C whereas this year few days have been that mild mostly 5-7C but even with maxes of 3C a frost hasn’t been achieved because of the unrelenting wind which has made this a horrible and unpleasant winter I absolutely hate strong winds and can hardly recall a day in this vile season that has even seen moderate never mind light winds. Absolutely sick of it howling and rattling night after night and seeing static temperatures all night despite clear skies. Also lost count the number of times the temperature keeps rising after sunset making it milder at night than during the day Something has to change fast if this winter is not to go down as the third season of rock bottom write-off dross on the trot

Last January was certainly not a decent month up here. It was about average for frost but appalling for snow with only brief transitory falls that gave just one day of lying snow at 9am - an unmeasurable covering on the 2nd that was gone completely by mid morning. February was dire on both counts: just one day of lying snow at 9am - 1cm on the 8th - and a total of only 17.8 hours below freezing the whole month. As far as I'm concerned last winter was a complete write off after 27th December - shockingly poor even compared to the standards of the last 20 years. I saw more snow in the exceptionally mild February 1998 than I did in the whole of the last 9 weeks of winter 2010/11. December 2011 has been very poor as well with little in the way of wintry weather other than the brief cold spell between 16th and 19th which produced 3cm of snow and a min of -4C. The Christmas/New Year period looks like being one of the mildest on record if not the mildest. The temps here for the last couple of days - maxes of 14.6C and 13.7C - were more suitable for late May than late December

Had no air frost during autumn which is unprecedented for my location. Didn't even come close with +0.8C on 6th and 7th November being the lowest minima and no other nights even below 2C First air frost was on the evening of the 1st Dec and had it not been for -0.7C on 4th May we would have gone from 29th March to 1st December with no air frost! So far in December I've recorded 5 air frosts but only 2 were below -1C with a min of -2.9C on the 5th. So currently well ahead of 2006 when -0.6C on the 19th Nov was the only air frost up to 15th December but we then had the coldest 2nd half of December since 1995 with lots of frost - something which doesn't look like happening this year.

For Aberdeen: which date/month is the latest that your location has ever received? - 2nd June 1975 which date/month on average has the last snowfall? - April which date/month is the earliest that your location has ever received? - 19th September 1919 which date/month on average has the first snowfall? - November which month is the snowiest when it comes to snow lying? - historically January but now that is the least snowy month between Dec and March. February has been snowiest in the last 15 years which month is the snowiest when it comes to snow falling? - as above which month is your snowiest (lying and falling, and depth) in your records? - In my personal records it is December 2010 with 24 days lying snow. From historical records February 1947 had lying snow on all 28 days. Greatest level depth for Aberdeen is around 70cm on 29th December 1908.

A very mild, sunny day here with a balmy south westerly wind. Temp peaked at 15.3C, 16.3C warmer than the same Saturday last year! It also felt a much warmer day than many during the dismal summer. Still 14.1C at the moment and clear. Temp dipped to 2.8C overnight so a large diurnal range for November. Yesterday had been the coldest day of autumn with a max of 5.7C. Sunshine: 3.50 hours, rainfall: 0.0mm. Such a relief to be finally rid of the ghastly south easterlies

A convective northerly is the best for snowfall here as it brings lots of sunshine and interesting cloudscapes as well as snow. Best time to get them is in December - over Christmas - though as we saw in 2006 even with the stronger sun northerlies can still deliver plenty of snow as late as March. Any direction from north west clockwise to east usually delivers the goods here although easterlies are usually grey and have been feeble in recent years. South easterlies are useless giving just rain or sleet while westerlies and south westerlies are dry.

It's not winter yet but I'll certainly vent my frustration at this dreadful excuse for an autumn. I thought Autumn 2006 was about as dire an autumn as you could get but I've been proven well and truly wrong this year. All the worse for following on from one of the coldest, dullest and wettest summers on record. 2011 has been so abysmal it makes years like 1998, 2002 and 2007 seem half decent by comparison. While even the horror of December 2002 had a respite of a 3-day frosty spell in-mid month this month has been unrelenting garbage on a scale I could never imagine possible in my worst nightmares. Thoroughly unpleasant and devoid of anything remotely interesting. It's 22nd November and I'm still waiting for the first air-frost with the real likelihood that it will end up as an unprecedented frost-free autumn. The mean minimum for the past 15-days has been a ridiculous 8.2C - what the mean maximum should be at this time of year! Never has there been a spell like this in November in over 150 years of records for this city. It's just day in day out of cloudy, mild rubbish with virtually static temperatures. Last week we suffered in excess of 2 days of almost continual darkness when the temperature varied by just 0.6C Today was the 10th mostly cloudy day in a row and the 14th out of 15 (total sun in the last 15 days: 12.6 hours). When the sky did clear at 3pm you'd think a cold night would be likely with plummeting temperatures but no, while it dropped from 7C to 4C pretty quickly it then stuck on that for hours and has now risen to 5.6C. So the wait for frost goes on and on. Still it was nice to see the temperature drop below 6C for the first time in nearly 10 days I don't know what's worse - the lack of sun, lack of frost, lack of temperature variation or lack of anything except drizzle and gloom. Although we don't normally get much snow before mid-December, if we don't see any lying in the next 5 and a bit weeks 2011 will go down as the most snowless in history here. Just 13 days falling and 2 days lying (depths 1cm and unmeasurable trace) so far and this is supposed to be the UK's snowiest city

13.4mm here - just 35% of average to this point. Dry is however the last word I'd think of to describe this month. The air has been damp and the ground saturated due to almost constant drizzle over the past week (Saturday excepted). 9 out of 14 days with measurable rain. October was similar with a low rain total and high rain days ( 59.2mm or 71% of average falling on 23 days - 5 more than average). Autumn 2008 was the driest I have recorded with 132.4mm. Total this year has been 131.2mm so will easily beat that.