Weather & Wellies – January 2021

November was notable for its fluctuating temperatures; some mornings were balmy at 11ºC and others were chilly at 4.4ºC but there were colder temperatures in September. The max temperature at 09.00 should be from the previous day (assuming that the highest temperatures will be sometime during the day before and this is always the case in summer) but this winter, there have been several incidences of the temperature rising overnight after a very cold day and the max (from the previous 24 hours) is recorded at 08.59. It is that time of year when cold air comes in and meets the much warmer land or loch, resulting in fog. Recently, it seems to have been the other way around and warm air comes in over the chillier water and there we are, in thickening mist and no sun.

Hair Ice at Portnellan
Freda Scott-Park

The cows came in just before Storm Aidan – with all the rain, the fields were getting soggy and the ladies and their calves were pleased to be inside. The youngsters stayed outside a little longer, hoovering up the last of the grass. It was only in November that the ground temperature fell below 10ºC so there was quite a lot of aftermath (the growth after second cut silage). However, since then temperatures have plummeted, and December and early January were memorable for having long periods of very cold weather. There was another storm, Bella, on 24th December that left our part of the world relatively unscathed although there was a backlash when 43.5mm fell on Boxing Day, followed by sleet and snow. The soil temperature (at 30 cm) has fallen to an average of 3.3ºC and I cannot remember such low ground temperatures for so long. The average grass temperature for December was just 0.3ºC and on the night of 8th January, -10ºC was recorded.

As this column is being prepared, Storm Christoph is currently bringing misery to many down south. Our snowfalls have been light; variably about 1cm. In January, the west of Scotland has been fortunate having long periods of calm weather as a high to the south pushed a very weak jet stream much further north than normal. La Niña is now in charge of our weather and that, combined with the activity of the jet stream, determines the winter and spring weather. There was discussion about the possibility of a Sudden Stratospheric Warming which causes our jet stream to wobble and that is adding a huge amount of uncertainty to the forecast.
As ever, our weather will be ‘changeable’.