Cold weather brings end to sunny March
Scotland is on the brink of seeing one of the sunniest spring months on record.
March has seen just half the months’ average rainfall, but on Wednesday snow and overnight temperatures of -6C are expected.
Jonathan Vautrey of the Met Office said:”it’s going to be an interesting change in weather for people who have become used to the sunshine.”
Before then, historic levels of brightness are being anticipated by meteorological statisticians. Successive areas of unseasonably high pressure have delivered the north of Scotland with almost 40 per cent more sunshine than normal for March.
In figures up to Saturday night, Scotland as a whole enjoyed 129.5 hours of sunshine, which is 33 per cent above average.
This placed the month as the third sunniest March since records began in 1919, with five days left still to be added.
The second sunniest month was March 2003, when 142.8 hours was recorded but the title of the March with most rays belongs to 1929, with 149.8 hours of sunshine.
Mr Vautrey added: “It’s been a pretty sunny month across all of Scotland. We still have all the sunshine from Sunday to add and Monday is looking quite bright as well.
“More in the way of cloud is coming in on Tuesday so whether that stops us racking up enough hours remains to be seen.”
Scotland’s warmest day of the year was recorded at Kinlochewe in Wester Ross, on Saturday March 19, when the mercury soared to 20.2C (68F).
Yesterday two areas reached 18.4C (64F) at Aboyne in Aberdeenshire and Drumnadrochit in Inverness-shire.
The beach at Loch Morlich, near Aviemore, proved popular over the weekend while skiers and snowboarders discovered there was still sufficient levels of snow on Cairn Gorm to put on a show.
Higher parts will see a return of wintry conditions tomorrow and on Wednesday and day-time temperatures will be down to just 6C (42F) in Edinburgh on Wednesday and Thursday.
Mr Vautrey said: “We are about to see a marked change in conditions. Cold air is tumbling down from the north, bringing temperatures back to the seasonal average for the time of year, if not below.”