NorthernRab

There are still snow patches on the Cairngorms surrounding Aviemore, I was there yesterday. The mountains beside Loch an Eilean also had snow - it was great, 25'C heat, no wind, great water.

That's a good thing, no? Sun is setting anyway and a comfortable sleep?

No, not always, but when your location is recording temperatures two, three, four, sometimes even five degrees above the locations around you against recordings not just taken by the Met Office, that's when people start asking questions. 25'C max in the south-west of Inverness today, was very nice but cloud rolling in the now.

24'C in the south west of Inverness, lovely day!

21'C, no wind and no cloud, excellent! :o

Sorry, but what's the point in reporting inaccuracies? There's no point whatsoever.

Currently 15'C, no cloud with a very light south west breeze. Just for today, give it a rest please.

Yet again, really? Temperatures are generally some 3 - 4'C cooler in the area around you.

Sunny, 23'C with a 2mph south wind, lovely! Just in the garden the now.

So you've just answered your own question, haven't you? :lol:

I can't see temperatures hiting 20'C in Northern Ireland next Thursday to be honest, more around 16-17'C with a few isolated warmer/cooler areas, winds picking up too so making it feel cooler. It will certainly be a contrast to the warm/very settled conditions which the UK is currently enjoying.

18'C at 10 O'clock, not a breath of wind, clear skies - this week is going to be such a contrast, especially around Inverness, Moray and Eilean Siar!

It was 27.3'C in my back garden at 3:40, but I'm not sure Dalcross actually got above 25-26'C. 24'C in Skye and Altnaharra! Edit: I reckon tomorrow, Fort William.

26'C in Inverness, but I doubt it's going to get much warmer. Really?! It's 21'C in Derry and Ballykelly, and the pool of warm air is to the west of you?

25'C in Inverness - if we could lose that gentle breeze we could maybe see a record-breaker for May in Inverness.

24'C here with a very light south-west breeze and not a cloud in the sky! Very rare for Inverness

It didn't get completely dark here last night, there was a gentle level of twilight until about 3:00AM when the sun started coming back up. We're still about a month away from the longest day though? 20th of June or something?

He is still a wee boy though, so it's important to look after his skin which you've all clearly done , when he gets older his skin will probably become darker (my sister actually stopped being able to get a tan as she grew older, gutted!). Also, little information for everyone on this topic. The person to blame for all this is fashion designer Coco Chanel. In 1923 she was accidentally sunburned on a cruise to Cannes. Before she knew it, she had started a new trend. Having a tan used to be a sign of poverty (rich landlords lounged around indoors all day, took casual strolls in the twilight, whereas the poor often worked outdoors for long hours, therefore tanned). Nowadays, a tan is seen as a sign of wealth; the rich can afford to go away to foreign countries, the poor cannot.

I've never got sunburn in Scotland in my life (unless I had it as a young child) because of my background. However, my friends have started to burn from as early as March on a nice day (that celtic skin does not fair well on a warm day). Rock Ness music festival in early June should really be known for the amazing sun burn that everyone gets... In fairness people should really be careful in the Highlands, sometimes temperatures can get up to close to 30'C and with those very long summer days compared to England, the sun is in the sky for longer. If you were to walk around during the Highland's warmest day of summer without lotion you'd probably get quite a nasty bit of sunburn.

Have you heard of Hollyrood and Scottish Law? Are you aware that such an issue would be a devolved matter, and therefore a Scottish choice? The Scottish have the same power to start up their own Met Office as the Irish. Speaking of 'straightened times', we are resisting the credit crunch a lot better than England, so such a concept isn't that unrealistic.

No, not at all, because we are all Scottish. With regards to your comments about history and heritage being very different between the north and the south of Scotland, that is false. Scottish Wars of Independence involved the entire of Scotland... Huge differences in Scottish culture between the north and south? Differences obviously, but not very big.

Aviemore has had a lot more snow than you have, and far colder temperatures. Inverness had freezing temperatures around hogmanay with hoar frost lasting for a long time, and some very low night time temperatures, but this only got a brief mention once. There is a south bias, we get very little help from the BBC in particular, who are advised by the Met Office. Also, the Met Office get night time minima for the Highland's embarassingly wrong, very often. I actually disregard their predictions.

Without a doubt concerning Scottish inequalities. Take Glasgow for example, within a one mile walk you can go from Drumchapel to Bearsden. Drumchapel has the wealth and health standards of Poland, whereas Bearsden has the wealth and health standards of Sweden, it's the extremes of a continent within a city. However, such inequalities are a lot less common than in England, as we all know. With regards to a tourism, I come from a city which makes a lot of money from tourism. For Invernesshire, I think that we earn a lot from tourism compared to the rest of Scotland (except from Edinburgh, quite a few pennies made there!) and I agree that this needs to be improved for other areas. However, with an independent Scotland, you could argue that Scotland's tourism would increase - independence would most probably make headlines round the world, undoubtedly due to the UK's global importance. Also, this year is the Scottish Homecoming Year, which will see a lot of Americans and Canadians of Scottish descent visiting Scotland for the first time, a real boost to our tourism. I'm not going to lie, I am excited about Barra's Whisky Festival this summer ! I would like to make one thing clear at this moment in time. I have nothing but respect for England as a nation, we have been through an awful lot together. However, I do not think it's fair that England should have to accomodate for Scotland's problems and I believe that as a nation, we can sort these problems out ourselves (and a quick glance over many of the posts made by English users in this topic confirms this!) The EU is still there, and if Scotland was to become independent, there is still a massive amount of potential for economic growth between the two nations (hopefully, a more equal one in the future!), with free trade and the freedom to hop across the border as normal. At the end of the day, I think Scotland's problems should be Scotland's problems and England's problems should be England's problems.

, the London point was hypothetical. I don't actually expect you to go for a walk in London just because I told you to haha. The funding for the Scottish Government's bodies can come from Scotland's own pocket in my opinion. I'm afraid the one who's splitting hairs here is you, you seem to be insinuating that Ireland's Met Office is fine. If Ireland's Met Office was to merge with the UKMO, there would be a lot of money saved, so the point here is one of principles and not of cash. Either way, if Scotland decided to have its own Met Office, it wouldn't concern you since you're an English citizen. Let's not split hairs here, Scotland and Ireland are in the same position here. My main point is that independence should come first, then a Scottish Met Office.

Some great points there Yeti, despite the fact that we may not be in agreement. It's a contraversial issue as to whether Scotland has actually taken much money out of the English taxpayer's pocket in comparison to the loss of revenue from Scotland's oil, the truth of the matter is that we'll never know. What we do know is that legally, the oil belongs to Scotland. It should be noted that Norway, a nation of similar population and population density is one of the wealthiest nations in the world per head of capita. Also, Norway doesn't have an international city, Oslo and Glasgow are similar in population, and Edinburgh is the second most important banking city in the UK (and among the largest financial centres in Europe). Luxembourg, the wealthiest nation on earth per head of capita, doesn't have a major international city at all. The point that we are UK students is, undoubtedly, a difficult one. Devolution is fantastic for enhancing democracy, and the result of devolution is that we are free to choose whether or not English students should be permitted to study for free at our universities. As a nation, we decided that there are too many English students to study for free in Scotland. Consider this, if we were to offer free university level education to English students, the number of English students that would flock to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyde would be far higher than it is now, and how is that fair compared to the OTHER English students that must remain at home in England and pay for their education? These universities are already competitive enough and Scotland has to take steps to ensure that its own youth (and postgraduate students respectively) have a fair chance of getting into their own country's universities. With regards to the point on oil production, new developments in drilling have seen the potential to drill an amount of oil three times higher than has already been found in the future. Cities like London perpetuate inequalities, the top 5% of English citizens own about 60% of the nation's wealth. As we are both socialists, I know that you are already aware of the massive inequalities. The Scottish Times or just the Times? Oh, and take a walk from Canary Warf to another, less fortunate area of London, seems this fantastic growth has only gone into the hands of a few I'm sorry, I assumed that you had the intelligence (which you clearly do) to realise that Scotland has the right to have its own Met Office. Scotland is a country, Ireland is also a country, regardless of the UK, devolution equates to devolved matters, not difficult. Besides, I have already clarified this for you a few times, why must you persist? Edit: I've removed the petty smile, it's this sort of smug attitude which leads to frictions and difficulty in discussing such issues in the first place.