Ravelin

Sorry HC, but forecast for the weekend was looking reasonable before the wife and I decided to take the caravan to Aviemore for a couple of nights. As the week has progressed the forecast for Sat/Sun has got steadily worse. Oh well, the caravan is waterproof and has a heater so we'll survive. Forecast for the NW (Lochinver) still looks not too bad, but maybe a tad chilly for camping (been there, done that, still do occasionally) so take plenty of warm stuff. On that note, the downward trend has begun here in Aberdeenshire this morning. Cool, cloudy and ever so slightly damp. A big change from the last few days, which have been glorious.

Pah, that's nothing, currently 24c here in Dyce. Quite crackers really, especially as it was so chilly yesterday morning in the house that I turned the heating back on for the first time for probably nearly 3 months. Pretty breezy here too this morning but at least that's moving some air through our office, which otherwise would be sweltering.

Unsurprisingly it's similar here. Was quite nice and sunny up until an hour or two ago but now it's clouded over and the breeze has increased. That sets us up for a weekend forecast that looks cool and breezy, before it warms up a bit again on Monday & Tuesday. Typical!

Well, with the schools back it was time to re-start the kids football on Saturday. After a good summer there were high hopes for the parents being able to watch from the sidelines in relative warmth, with perhaps a chance of shorts being the rare choice of clothing? Nope, not a chance, the curse of kids football struck again and we were stood there in the rain, of varying intensities, for the whole of the match! On the brighter side, Sunday was a glorious day after some early cloud and mist cleared. Had a really enjoyable couple of hours out on the bike around the back roads in warm sun and a gentle breeze. It was still warm enough for just a t-shirt on a post-dinner walk around the local woods with the family and the dog. Today started of misty first thing but that's dissipated now so it's decent looking outside, but not particularly sunny.

I suspect that this summer will come in as pretty average when compared to historical records but, as you say yourself, it'll probably stand out in most peoples minds a good one purely because it's been better in so many ways than the last few summers. I think the cool spring has also made the summer feel warmer that it's actually been. For example, here in Aberdeen the average July/August high temp is 18C, which is pretty much what we've been getting outside of the week or so hot period at the start of July. Despite 18C being average for the time of year it feels warm compared to what we had for the first 5-6 months of 2013. Anyway, that also explains the lack of post from me recently cos the weather has been rather...well...average. Today has also been mostly average, starting off wet(ish) but clearing to some nice warm sun, now followed by some darker looking clouds bubbling up. I'm almost, but not quite yet, beginning to long for a bit of "snow watching" again.

Yeak....has summer really passed that quickly? It'll be no time before we're poring over models again looking for "the big freeze". Been mixed weather here the last week or so, a bit of everything. Although it's not been as warm as it was it's still pretty pleasant. Oh, and this morning's headline "The Met Office has confirmed that last month was the second warmest July on record in Scotland" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-23608806)

Yeah, complete contrast to yesterday morning! It was a sunny 20 degC and felt warm despite the breeze, which compares very favorably to yesterdays low cloud, mist and rain. It's raining in Dyce at the moment but from the radar it looks as if it should clear again. Doesn't look much like any herb I've grown, what does the label claim it is?

Yesterday - Decently sunny day and a lovely evening. This Morning - Yuck!

Some beefy looking rain clouds appearing now, both on the radar and looking out the various windows at work. Thought I just saw a flash but no associated thunder so maybe I was seeing things. That reminds me, a number of years ago we took the parents caravan to France. Stayed in a site near Rouen in blisteringly hot temperatures i.e. frequently into the 30s. The caravan was pitched along the edge of the site with a 3-wire fence behind and then trees. On a few days we got some good thunderstorms and during one I went out to check the awning as it had been leaking a little. Whilst standing in the awning I heard an almighty crack! Lightning must have struck not too far away and I actually saw sparks jump the gaps between the wires at the fence posts behind the caravan. I was back in the caravan rather sharpish after that.

When I left work at 6pm Dyce was still dry but there was a thunderstorm in progress just to the West. As I drove home to Kemnay I pretty much skirted the rear edge of it, but still hit some heavy rain between Blackburn & Kintore and saw the odd flash through the very dark clouds. There was a lot of surface water on the roads and when I got home the wife conformed that Kemnay had been under it and the electricity supply had been briefly interrupted at one point. 6yr old son was going on about it at dinner and even asked again this morning "is the lightning coming back today?". Not sure if he was scared, excited or just wanted to see mummy run around unplugging everything again. Does anyone else do that, unplug stuff during a thunderstorm? I used to, but don't bother anymore. Chances of actually getting a lightning strike through your house in this country are pretty small really. When I lived in Orlando for a bit I used to unplug stuff, the first few times. Then you realised that it happened that often that it wasn't worth worrying about or you'd spend half your life unplugging and re-plugging every electrical item. In 3 yrs there I never had the apartment struck, nor ever knew anyone who had. Given the intensity and frequency of the storms there, if it didn't happen there it ain't likely to happen here. Did get some simultaneous flash & crack combinations though. That's when you decide to get off the balcony/stand back from the window a bit.

I got that too yesterday and it was only one day of rain. Just shows how accustomed to dry sunny weather we've become recently and the associated ability to enjoy being outdoors. Today has been dry and sunny so far but there's some impressive clouds over to the West at the moment.

3 or 4 rumbles of thunder here before 7pm. Didn't see the lightning but I'm assuming it was coming from a mass of black cloud off to our NE at the time. Stonker of a double rainbow in front of it too, 6 yr old son was mightily impressed with that asking "why are there two rainbows?". The lower of the two was the brightest rainbow I've seen in years too and you coudl see all the colour range very distinctly!

Yep, at 5am I was raised from my slumber. As I was half awake I was wondering "what the heck is that?" as a loud, long rumbling sound became apparent. Once I was fully awake I realised that it was thunder and for the next 15 mins or so there were at least another 6 flashes of lightening accompanied by very heavy rain. I couldn't see any of the lightening bolts directly from the bathroom window but if they weren't overhead they were pretty close. Didn't last long though and I was back in bed trying to get back to sleep. Yesterday evening was very humid. I went for a run and was literally dripping by the time I got back. This morning we were still under a heavy band of rain when I got up for, and drove to work. Eased off as I approached Dyce and now it's just very grey and misty.

Come on...move along now...nothing to see here.... Well as I expected the most we've had so far is some light to moderate rain that has now largely stopped. No flashy, bangy stuff at all.

Got a text not long ago from my mum, who is in Ayrshire at the moment, to say they've just had a thunderstorm. For those that get them...enjoy! Currently in Dyce it's calm and dry but overcast with light grey cloud. Not sure if we'll get any of the more potent rain/thunderstorms here as I'm not sure the temperatures have been high enough to put the energy in. Radar seems to show the band of heavy showers coming up the north sea heading roughly our way though.

Just back from 2 weeks hold with the caravan in NW Scotland. When we decided on that it was always going to be a gamble weather wise with "as long as it stays reasonably dry we'll be happy" being the thought. What we got was, although not as good as most have had, simply stunning! We arrived in Fort William on the afternoon of 6th July to a typical welcome i.e. warm and sunny at Laggan but becoming progressively greyer and duller the further west we drove along Glen Spean. Got some light rain that evening, as if Fort William was just making sure we knew we were in Fort William. After that though the days stayed dry, and it warmed up nicely to around the mid 20s at times. Certainly warm enough to be sitting outside until late evening. In fact, of all the times I've been to Fort William I've never know it to be so warm and/or dry. The warm dry weather continued when we moved to Morven mid-week, before eventually becoming a bit cooler, with coastal mist/fog in the mornings. We even had to wait 1.5hrs the morning we went over to Mull for the fog to clear enough for the Lochaline ferry to run. That was a real eery trip, crossing in swirling mist across a millpond-like Sound of Mull. Even although it did cool off for a few days, relatively speaking, it was still pleasant enough for shorts, or at worse light trousers, to be worn most of the time and the dry theme continued. The last port of call was Ullapool, where the, again relatively, cooler theme continued, but with a sometimes rather strong breeze (although I think this was exacerbated by the exposed position of the site we were staying in at Ardmair). By the end of our second week however the warm weather reached the NE, clearing the low grey cloud away and giving us a hot, cloudless last 2 or 3 days. On Sat 20th we went out for a short walk just inland of Ullapool a bit and the cars temperature gauge was showing 26degC. Frankly that was just too hot to walk in comfortably and we retreated to Ullapool for ice creams & slushies and for the dog to take a much needed cooling off swim in the sea. Even I went for a short swim in the sea off Ardmair on returning to the site. It's a long time since I've swam in the sea off Scotland and I can tell you that despite the air temperature the sea was *bleep bleep* cold once past about knee depth! The added bonus of all the sun was an almost total lack of the dreaded midge, although the clegs/horseflies were out in force up around Ullapool at the end of the second week. We had a really fantastic 2 weeks away and the great weather had a very significant part to play in that. Had it been cool, wet and windy I think we'd have been desperate to come home but we really, really didn't want to have to come home yesterday! If we could only get this sort of weather every summer I'd never holiday anywhere else but Scotland. Been years sine I was in Ullapool and I won't leave it so long again, the whole area is just stunning and there's just so many fantastic looking hills there I'm now desperate to go back to climb. Oh well, back to work and back to reality today. Nice pleasant sunny day here in Dyce currently, with the temperature around 18degC at noon. Not spectacular but nothing to complain about either. In reality we could do with the rain forecast for later in the week as the countryside coming down the A96 from Inverness yesterday was looking noticeably dry. My garden on the other hand, which was kindly watered by our neighbors, has done it's usual holiday transformation from relatively neat to jungle. The small radishes of 2 weeks ago (I'd picked everything bigger) morphed into huge monsters almost the size of turnips and had to be pulled and chucked. Lettuce and salad leave crops are coming on well though, as is some of the other stuff despite a late start to planting this year.

Just a little too much cloud, and a bit too much of a breeze to feel warm here so far today. As for melting, not a problem for me as it'll be a major miracle if Ft.William gets hot enough for that to be a problem this week. In fact, if the forecast is correct, then tomorrow I'll be heading from 22ºC and sun towards 14ºC and rain. I must be nuts!

Just as well the average dissolving point of a Scotsman is pretty high after this morning's heavy rain. Clearing away into the North Sea now and I can see a patch of blue sky so let the warming up process begin!

No idea. I did think it might have somehow involved the lovely warm sunshine we had first thing this morning. However that soon disappeared to be replaced by grey, drizzly murk. The drizzle has gone for now, but the murk is insisting on hanging around.

Well luckily some of us are on holiday then. I'll be in Ft.William and if it gets into the mid 20s while I'm there it'll be a first. In fact, if it isn't cold and persisting down with rain in Ft.William while I'm there then that might be approaching a first. After a few pretty decent days it's clouded over here this afternoon, with just some light rain so far.

Well it's turned out to be a lovely afternoon here with all this mornings cloud having disappeared, leaving blue skies, sunshine and the temp hitting 17degC (probably a little warmer further inland at the home locale).

Maybe the midges have decided to migrate to England and you are just unlucky to be in their path? Now wouldn't that cause some consternation if all of the midges from NW Scotland decided to take their hols down south this year. Right, weather, boring. Calm, 100% cloud cover, mild(ish) and dry. It's supposed to warm up if/as the cloud break up here later but we'll see. Tomorrow looks rather wet though according to the current forecast. No sign of a warmer spell for Scotland for the rapidly approaching school holidays? I'm not sure I dare risk venturing into the models thread to see for myself.

It started of quite nice here this morning with warm sun and broken cloud. Now however it has completely clouded over, resulting in me having the close the office window again as the breeze blowing in was getting just a little too chilly. Nice end to the day yesterday though. Went out for a quick run at 9pm and it was very pleasant.

2 weeks and counting for me too with regards to the hols, so from the 2nd week of July onwards I request dry, warm conditions for NW Scotland. Until then it can do what it likes, although obviously I'd prefer something summer-like. The weekend just past wasn't dull. On Saturday we were up at Port Soy and the weather turned out better than I'd expected. It stayed dry and comfortably warm, with the sun even putting in an appearance from time to time. Late on in the afternoon some impressively dark clouds appeared from a generally southerly direction and proceeded to develop into a thunderstorm. I counted around half a dozen flashes/thunderclaps in total in the space of maybe an hour. Didn't actually see any lightening (just the general flash) so I'm assuming it was probably sheet lightening within the clouds. Impressively heavy rainfall for a time too and the main street in Cullen was a temporary river when we paid a visit to the chippie there. Cleared afterwards to broken cloud. Sunday was a bit of a washout with rain on and off for most of the day. One good thing about the weekend was not having to water the garden, nor will it need to be done for another few days unless it heats up considerably.

Well I don't know about where you are but here, no too far away, it's properly raining for the first time in a while. Forecast suggests it'll dry up later before more rain/showers move in over the weekend. I've no real complaint about the rain, we need it, my complaint is just about the timing i.e. over the weekend rather than during the working week.