The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
F-f-f-fair City:
Perth is coldest city in the UK, according to stats.
Perth has shown how cool it is as new research found it to be the coldest city in the country.
Decades worth of data was collated to establish which city has the lowest average temperature in the UK, with Perth taking the dubious top spot.
Elsewhere in Tayside and Fife, Dundee was found to be the fifth coldest city.
Perth shared the same minimum average annual temperature (5.1°C) with three other cities – Leeds, Bradford and Aberdeen – but fared worse with the average minimum temperature in winter (0.4°C), leaving it top of the list.
Officially the UK’s sunniest city, Dundee was slightly warmer, with an average of 5.3°C and a winter minimum average of 0.8°C.
The data was compiled from Met Office statistics recorded between 1981 and 2015 to take a closer look at low temperatures across the country.
The recently ended – officially, anyway – winter was not taken into account so Perth is likely to maintain a low average as temperatures in rural Perthshire fell to as low as -10°C in January.
The region shivered through an Arctic blast as the beast from the east caused havoc throughout Courier Country, forcing the closure of schools and creating chaos on the roads.
The warmest city in Scotland was found to be Edinburgh, with an average minimum temperature of 5.9°C.
The furthest north city, Inverness, was not even in the top 10. With an average minimum temperature of 5.6°C, it was 12th in the table – the second warmest in Scotland after Edinburgh.
Freeflush, an organisation campaigning to reduce water waste by 90% by 2050, carried out the research.
Freeflush says that coastal areas tend to be warmer, usually because of the influence of sea air, and westerly facing regions such as Wales generally benefit from more temperate climates.
As may be expected, the further south one goes the warmer the average temperature is, with the likes of Swansea and Portsmouth bringing up the rear with averages of 8.5°C and 8.2°C respectively.
The lowest temperature recorded in the time period Freeflush studied was a brisk -27°C in Braemar during 1982.
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Laurie Webley, 28, social services student, Perth: “At first I was surprised to hear that, but when I think about the amount of times I’ve had to defrost my car this year already, then it probably is quite accurate. I haven’t been up further north in a long time, but I didn’t really notice a difference when I did.”
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Drew McGregor, 32, barista, Perth: “It doesn’t surprise me. Even though the weather can be really nice one day, the next day I’m having to scrape my car. In our house there is a window on the ceiling that we like to have open, but by about 6pm every night it needs to be closed because of the cold. I’ve found Edinburgh to be pretty chilly at times.”
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Michael White, 31, Willows Coffee Shop owner, Perth: “I would have thought the further north cities would have been colder. If you go up to Aberdeen for example, there always seems to be a bit of a wind chill so maybe that makes it feel colder than what the temperatures say. Maybe that can change what people perceive.”
It may be the Fair City, but Perth is – according to a new study – also the coldest city. Even places further north, including Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness, have a higher average temperature, leaving Perth to scoop the dubious accolade of the chilliest large settlement in the UK.
Regardless of whether or not you believe the statistics they are sure to provide a good talking point – indeed, one could say the news will spark heated debate.