Author: Eric Gilbert

The cool northeasterly wind bringing moisture and cool air from the NorthSea continued on Monday. As a result the thermometer did not get above the average with a maximum of 7.5C (-0.5C). The past night was not so cold as the previous night with a low of -0.7C but cloud drifted in during the early hours that lifted the thermometer to 2.2C at 08.00.

There were a couple of very brief and light drizzly incidents during the daytime but bot sufficient to measure, recorded as a trace.

Tuesday dawned dull and gloomy but the wind a shade lighter but still from the cool northeast.

The numerous hours of welcome sunshine on Sunday lifted the maximum temperature of 8.3C just above average (+0.3C). However, during the evening and overnight the warmth dispersed into the atmosphere so that a minimum of -2.6C was recorded at 03.34 on Monday, which was 4.2C below the average.

It was another dry day with the UV level at 1.9, the highest this month, as on Saturday.

Monday dawned dull with high level cloud that had drifted in on the northeasterly airstream obscuring any possible sunshine. The temperature had recovered to 0.7C at 08.00 thanks to the cloud cover.

An anticyclone has settled over Scotland and continues to produce a northeasterly breeze, which is a cool direction. The cool airstream meant the maximum on Saturday was just 6.7C being 1.4C below the average. An air frost occurred overnight as the thermometer dropped to -0.5C, which was 2.1C below average.

The UV peak reading of 1.9 was the highest since October, but still in the ‘Low’ category.

Sunday arrived with glorious sunshine that lifted the temperature to 1.6C at 08.00 with the barometric pressure rising significantly over the past twenty-four hours due to the closeness of the anticyclone, with a reading of 1026.8mb at 0800, the highest for a week.

The airstream on Friday veered into the northeast, not seen for a month. The air from this direction is cooler although the thermometer did reach 9.7C initially before falling back in the afternoon. Overnight the temperature dropped to 0.8C producing a ground frost and being 0.8C below the average.

There were a couple of very light showers of drizzle that amounted to 0.7mm taking the monthly total to 12.1mm when the average for February is 67.2mm.

Saturday arrived with a little brightness but this was soon muted by a large are of cloud arriving on the northeasterly breeze. The shift in wind direction is due to the anticyclone migrating just off the Scottish north coast, which as the air rotates clockwise, produces the wind from the northeast.

The wind from the north and north-northeast on Thursday was strong gusting to 25mph at its peak. This cool airstream meant a cool day with the thermometer not rising above 6.5C, which was the coolest day this month being 1.5C below the average. The strong wind and low temperatures meant there was a wind chill making it feel outside at 08.00 more like 2C when the thermometer read 4.7C.

The skies initially cleared in the evening allowing the temperature to drop steadily reaching a minimum of -2.6C, giving a sharp air frost at 01.09 in the early hairs of Friday then rising before dawn to reach 1.7C at 08.00.

Brief brightness was observed after dawn on Friday but this quickly changed as cloud soon drifted in with total cloud cover by 07.45.