March Blizzard

Baltasound actually got as low as -6.6C in the last 24 hours. Just 0.2C off the UK low, not often that happens outside the summer months I'm sure. Must be the lowest temperature there for quite a while.

I would love a sub 4C March. Given how mild they have been on average for nearly 30 years a notably cold one is inevitable, let's hope it's March 2013. In a way it's a frustrating month in terms of cold, in the past it has produced sub zero CET values for at least half the month but there has always been some kind of mild/warm period to drag up the temperatures. 1947 flicked like a switch this way. There have also been sub zero CET days well into the month which shows respectable cold can happen right up until April. It's just very rarely managed to put the whole "package" together in one calendar month. It is to be expected given the unavoidable slide into a warmer time of year, though. I can wait till April for spring this year.

Yeah, the biggest enemy of low average temperatures in March are the maxima, the minima in general are not too dissimilar to the winter months. There's just too much that has to fall into place to suppress maxima when the sun is up for around 12 hours a day.

Agreed. Would be a big ask. The month had been too mild/average until the cold arrived on about the 9th/10th. A similar level of cold to today/tomorrow would then have to persist until the end of the month. Not impossible but not probable.

I expected slightly lower than that to be honest. I guess the lack of low minima in the midlands, due to cloud, prevented it falling further.

I take it yesterday came in at -0.9C then?

Cloud cover did its job last night, unfortunately. Considering we were at -10.5C at 11pm at Tulloch Bridge we were on course for a sub -15C reading there by dawn if conditions stayed the same. Looks like January may keep the record by the skin of it's teeth.

Yeah, we may have had a chance if the cloud was thick and persisted throughout daylight hours. The sunshine, even in small doses, has already done its work in terms of keeping the record safe.

Much more cloud now, very light powdery snow blowing about in the wind.

A sunny start here with a very light dusting of powdery snow on surfaces which still remains in sheltered spots, wind has picked up a bit now and brought in a bit more cloud. Still generally sunny and feeling bitter outside.

Aboyne was -12.9C at 6am. Altnaharra -11.2C at 7am. Perhaps noteworthy is the -5.1C at Baltasound at 2am.

That English record does look slightly vulnerable, it may not even last tommorow. Interestingly, the Scottish record is only -3.9C, a temperature that is warmer than what I browsed for Glen Ogle today. Maybe we've broke a record and don't even know it?

There was a -1.0C max on 8th April 1975 in Dalwhinnie. A 0.0C max on 15th April 1966 in Wales. These are the lowest max temperatures for the month of April (in the last 50 years) which is the latest month an ice day has been recorded. It doesn't necessarily reflect when the latest ice day occurred. I'd imagine a max of -0.1C must have been recorded well into April at 1 or more of the usual Scottish sites.

Glen Ogle @ -6.2C at 6pm.

I noticed that, too. We should be comfortably sub 4C by Wednesday.

Wow! Looked like many places had very static temperatures under the cloud yesterday.

1997-2008 looks a sorry sight. 2009 - present looks fairly typical of all years listed.

From one extreme to another; Braemar had a range of just 0.6C yesterday. A low of 1.1C and a high of 1.7C!

March 2006 ended up 4.9C, off the top of my head. One of only 2 sub 5C Marches since the 80's, when we had 5!

I actually think a good chunk of March 1947 had a subzero CET, perhaps up to about the 15th. I'm sure someone on here will have the data on hand.

Imagine an overall March CET of -1C. That would be colder than any December! Shame the chances of it are extremely minuscule. Oh well, we can dream.

All i know for sure is that it will be a lot more common in Sweden than here!

Considering the low so far this winter is "just" -13.1C i would say there is a half decent chance of it being surpassed sometime 10/11/12th. Of course there would probably need to be lying snow and clear calm conditions at night are a must. Given the general frostiness expected i wouldn't be surprised if somewhere in the Highlands (most likely) snatches a new winter low.

Goes to show that sub zero means are still possible right until the end of astronomical winter.

There seems to be a bit of ambiguity regarding the actual largest diurnal range. I've heard Altnaharra in December, Redhill in August and Perthshire in May as contenders. If anyone knows for sure i'd be glad to hear it.