Scotland - Weather Chat

[A Winter's Tale]

Lovely clear autumnal evening after a changeable couple of days. It's been a lovely mix of settle, autumnal weather with hours of day/night equal there's been some very pleasant with length/strength of sunlight to bring some bright and warmlate summer conditions to enjoy and a distinct chill after dark with low overnight minima and the first air frosts of season a few days ago. It definitely feels and looks like autumn now with changing shadows, earlier sunsets, and darker evenings as we make progress towards winter and have left behind the best of the summer weather and daylight. It's a shame that May-July/August was such a let down after two good summers and very respectable start to the year with a terrific winter Ocerall for snow in this region and a decent March and April. It's been quite an odd year for weather, nationally and globally. As we are in autumn proper we can enjoy some of the traditions owns characteristics of changeable autumnal conditions during the coming weeks.

Looks like a crisp, clear night to come and there's a chance of seeing the northern lights. It'd be quite unique to see a solar and lunar eclipse, meteor showers and the northern lights in the same year.

[Cheggers]

Look North, Aurora giving an exceptional display.

Edited October 7, 2015 by Cheggers

[mistyqueen]

Yesterday was another stinkingly gorgeous one, with a nice display of the Aurora to finish off! It's cold again this morning, temp currently 4.7 but it looks like it'll stay sunny for the best part of the day. Central heating still not fixed despite a certain party promising it would be done by the beginning of October. Mind you, he didn't say what year that would be! Says he'll look at it this weekend. I live in hope!

[peborant]

First ground frost of the season in Dollar, Clackmannanshire    , with an air temp of around 3 degrees. Shame I was not aware of the aurora borealis last night but I am doubtful as to whether I would have been able to see it with the Ochils blocking the view to the North. 

[Ravelin]

Ah, finally, back to wall to wall blue skies this morning after a couple of rather breezy, cloudy and wet days. Overnight min of 3.5C.

 

Missed the aurora yet again last night, no matter how often I try to whitelist it, the warning email from Aurora Watch UK always seems to end up in my spam folder so I don't see it until too late.

[Cheggers]

First ground frost of the season in Dollar, Clackmannanshire    , with an air temp of around 3 degrees. Shame I was not aware of the aurora borealis last night but I am doubtful as to whether I would have been able to see it with the Ochils blocking the view to the North. 

You wud have seen it, I look straight at the Ochils and it was a fair bit above. We have 2 street lights ootside and it was still very clear.

 

Cold and frosty start at 6am, but mist now clearing to leave cold but pleasant sun.

[Cheggers]

This is more what we saw last night, just a shame my camera was gubbed.

 

[Ravelin]

Been close on a couple of occasions recently but last night was the first air frost of the season at -0.9C. Frost on the shaded grass and car windscreen needed some scraper action. As you'd expect having just said that, blue skies and sun this morning with just a few fluffy clouds and a light breeze.

[Jo Farrow]

Tattie hols starting today, looking fair but cool

http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=news;storyid=6929;sess=

[Richard Taylor]

Fit a bonnie day.

[Northernlights]

 A bit dull but no wind and even warm today .Washing machines and blowing out dusty machines  ready for winter storage. Still loading grain after main store had a fire and blew the local electricity on different days so everyone has had a challenging year in farming

 

Garden still throwing up unusual late season growth with both clematis and honeysuckle in full bloom. Some honeysuckle at our back door really strongly scented this evening. Grass growth has been exceptional this last 6 weeks too. Cereal yields have been exceptional too even with the cold early summer, though prices are on the floor especially with the world record wheat yield having been broken twice in England over the summer.Still think rising background CO2 levels have helped these yields of both grass and grain. So in spite of these yields losses are more likely than profits this year and to back this up there are stories of up to 2000 acres being turned over to rye production next year to feed several new large anerobic digesters in this area as cereal production becomes uneconomic.

[Ravelin]

NL, our spring flowering clematis is flowering again at the moment. Grass got a quick cut on a med setting just to 'even up' the longer bits. Last cut this year? Hopefully but we'll see.

Harvested a load of runner beans today and probably the last of the courgettes as the frost the other night has the plants looking rather sorry. Also gave up on the tomatoes ripening so if anyone has a good recipe for green tomato chutney...

Not been a bad day here. High cloud meant little sun but the temp hit at least 15C with virtually no wind. Had a cycle round the woods this morning with no need to layer up with more than a light t-shirt and a light fleece. Same in the garden this afternoon, not warm but pleasant enough, especially for mid October.

Edited October 10, 2015 by Ravelin

[Hairy Celt]

NL, our spring flowering clematis is flowering again at the moment. Grass got a quick cut on a med setting just to 'even up' the longer bits. Last cut this year? Hopefully but we'll see.

Harvested a load of runner beans today and probably the last of the courgettes as the frost the other night has the plants looking rather sorry. Also gave up on the tomatoes ripening so if anyone has a good recipe for green tomato chutney...

Not been a bad day here. High cloud meant little sun but the temp hit at least 15C with virtually no wind. Had a cycle round the woods this morning with no need to layer up with more than a light t-shirt and a light fleece. Same in the garden this afternoon, not warm but pleasant enough, especially for mid October.

 

Chutney recipe adapted from HMSO 'Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables', printed 1975 and pinched off my sister 10 years later... it's a bit old school, but bloody marvellous.

6lb green tomatoes, 2lb onions, 1lb raisins, 2lb sugar (any sort but good to have some dark matter in there), 2 pints of the best vinegar you can find (although cheap stuff is ok) plus spices that you like (a few teaspoons of 'mixed spices' is a good starting point).  Roughly chop toms, finely chop onions, simmer in a closed pan with a little water to prevent sticking. Add vinegar and spices and reduce to a thick paste - this takes time and patience as you need to keep stirring as it thickens, otherwise it sticks and burns. I've been doing this for about the last 10 years cos we always end up with lots of green toms in October. Cheese butties will never be the same again.

 

Erm, weather... not much really, been away for a few days but apparently it's been mild and sometimes sunny, little wind. The trees are looking good. 

[Guest]

It's a damp start in the eastern Borders, but the week ahead looks as good as you can expect for mid-October. No strong wind or lashing rain. I can't complain, I've got the BoyCatches down for the week. We took them out to walk the dogs last night and ended up hay bale jumping. The boys walked back to the house stripped to the waist as they were roasting hot!! I must be getting old as I was frozen fully clothed with a big jumper on.

[NUT]

Reporting in from weymouth weather been a little chilly with the wind down here at times but brightened up a lot today no rain it not too bad at all should be dry for the rest of my holiday hopefully hope everybody well up north

Edited October 11, 2015 by NUT

[Northernlights]

Another dull almost calm dry day here. Bit cooler only 12c  at mdday. Still picking apples and on passing plum tree noticed several green plums must be from the some bossom that flowered in July. A very strange season.

[SW Saltire]

Been a pretty agreeable 5/6 weeks since the end of 'summer' meteorologically speaking.

Can't complain, pretty dry and sunny... Looks like it will continue for a fair bit bar the odd blip

Then November can do what it wants (predictions and expectations would be wet) then... A very snowy December, January, February and early March too...

(Ok not going to happen...)

[skifreak]

Quite cool, largely dry, light winds, overnight frosts. Looking quite a good week for the remaining snow patches, particularly if the high retrogresses and lets the flood gates open from the North at the end of the month - though big snow falls in October on the mountains makes me nervous! However enough to get a turn or two on a nice grassy patch of Meall a' Bhuiridh would be nice to keep the run of consecutive months going through October. 

[Guest]

Been a pretty agreeable 5/6 weeks since the end of 'summer' meteorologically speaking.

Can't complain, pretty dry and sunny... Looks like it will continue for a fair bit bar the odd blip

Then November can do what it wants (predictions and expectations would be wet) then... A very snowy December, January, February and early March too...

(Ok not going to happen...)

 

Given how dry September has been, and how dry October seems to be turning out it's a shoe-in that either November or December will be exceptionally wet. I know the weather doesn't really work like that, but we'll pay at some point for this drier spell (in general).

[mistyqueen]

Another lovely morning up here, but noticeably colder than of late. I'm told we have brambles now ready to pick lurking behind the garage, great with ma porridge and my home made bramble whisky liquer!

[doctormog]

It feels chilly here today and I was awoken by some rather heavy rain earlier this morning that added a further 7.5mm of rain to this month's total.

[tempestwatch]

Do you think that this blocking can be a major player in the winter to come owing to El Nino being a major player? Some of the long range stuff hints at mild and wet?

[Ross Andrew Hemphill]

Something tells me us Scots are in for a really cold winter, I'm not sure why but I have a feeling its going to be a good one!

[Hairy Celt]

Definitely autumnal on the north coast now.  Hat, coat and gloves today in 8C, a stiff breeze and sharp showers.  Summer warmth now just a memory (from last year).

[Guest]

Definitely autumnal on the north coast now.  Hat, coat and gloves today in 8C, a stiff breeze and sharp showers.  Summer warmth now just a memory (from last year).

 

While I'm cheating a little since the beach we were at is in the far north of England, it was still very chilly out there today. Even when the sun came out later on it didn't warm up. If you squint carefully at the last pic you can see Berwick in the distance where the land meets the sea.

 

 

No change in the models tonight, high pressure over us or nearby so at worst it'll be cool with some showers rather than any proper windstorms.