So long to worst winter for 10yrs

IT has been one of the coldest and most disruptive winters in a decade.

Scotland has suffered some of the most extreme conditions since the Big Freeze of 2010, Met Office figures due out on Monday will confirm.

Although the so-called Beast from the East snowstorm caused similar conditions in 2018, that system happened at the start of spring rather than winter.

However, the weather is set to become far more favourable as meteorological winter draws to an end this weekend.

Parts of Scotland will enjoy bright sunshine, with temperatures double the average for the month. The mercury could hit 14C (57F) in Aberdeen this afternoon.

Scotland was just days into winter when severe ice closed the £1.3billion Queensferry Crossing on December 4, then Boxing Day saw the arrival of Storm Bella. The first of three named winter storms, it brought the first chill of Arctic air which came to dominate the weather for almost two months.

The Met Office said Scotland suffered its coldest January since 2010, with the average temperature 2C below normal.

However, it was also the fourth sunniest January since records began in 1919. Things turned Siberian on February 11, when the temperature plunged to minus 23C (-9F) in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, which witnessed the coldest morning in the UK in 25 years.

It was only towards the end of this month that winds turned from the fierce easterly source to the south-west, bringing up warm air from the Canary Islands.

Looking ahead, the Met Office’s Aiden McGivern said that after cloud clears at lunchtime today ‘things are looking very nice indeed, with long spells of sunshine’.

He added: ‘For the vast majority, it is dry and it will feel pleasant in the sunshine.

‘A chilly start on Sunday but by the afternoon, it’s long spells of sunshine.’