Dry winter is ‘fourth mildest on record’

SCOTLAND experienced the fourth-mildest winter since records began more than 100 years ago, according to the Met Office.

Normally winters are either cold and dry, or mild and wet, but instead we have seen the unusual combination of dry and mild conditions over the last three months.

Experts say this is because of high pressure conditions over Scandinavia, which has acted as a “shield” over Europe.

Statistics varied across the UK, with Scotland experiencing the fourth-mildest winter on record, and Northern Ireland the fifth-mildest. As a whole, the UK has had the ninth mildest winter since records began in 1910.

Although the winters of 2013/14 and 2015/16 were both milder, the crucial differThe ence is they were also very wet and often stormy.

Weathermen define winter as the months of December, January and February.

However, experts said they were unable to say what all this means as the country heads into the spring, as you cannot always rely on past history as an indicator.

Grahame Madge, a spokesman for the Met Office, said: “What we have had this winter is quite unusual.

“To get a relatively mild, dry winter is climatically quite unusual. That is basically because we had high pressure over Scandinavia this winter.”

The UK has also had about three quarters of the average rainfall. Northern Ireland has been the driest with 63.5 per cent of its average, Scotland the wettest with 82 per cent.