Chose May to go to the Highlands because I thought that was the one month where I wouldn't experience nuclear winter conditions. Couldn't have been more wrong with that.
Shockingly bad weather that started poor and just got worse and worse. Barely saw any sunshine the entire time except in coastal locations and the last five days were horrific beyond comprehension. Barely stopped raining, temperatures at times lower than the average January maximum during the day and endless ugly grotesque grey filth covering the sky The warmest it reached was around 15/16C in Oban on Sunday 16th which is just the average for May. I don't think any other day made it beyond 13C
Yet another holiday in which the weather was not just worse than average but as bad as it could possibly be. On a par with Slovakia in May/June 2013 as the most dismal, grey, depressing and sunless weather I have ever endured on a holiday.
I really can't put into words how sick to death I am of being imprisoned in this cesspit grey island after that. Forecast: showers this morning but then brightening up. Reality: persistent rain until after Inverness then soul destroying grey garbage all the way home after that. Absolutely DISGUSTING
When I go on holiday I want to be able to spend as much time outdoors as possible and be able to sit out in the garden until after dark. In this stinking country I can't even do that at the peak of the day in what should be the best month of the year. 90% of the planet wouldn't endure toxic crud like this in their worst month.
In 2019 I recorded only 37.1 hours sun from the 18th-31st May and struggled to find a precedent for such a revolting May fortnight. I eventually came up with two worse offerings: 2nd-15th May 1927 with 24 hours and 2nd-15th May 1969 with 26 hours. Just 2 years on that dismal fortnight has been eclipsed with the past 14 days seeing just 26 hours so as bad as anything ever recorded during May.
12th - 25th November 2020 had more sun and that included the end of a spell that was grim by November standards
This month has been an utter car crash on a par with May 1983. The month so bad that there was nothing like it in over 120 years of prior records. It's hard to believe even then that there could have been so much bare tree foliage a week from summer. The current situation has to be unprecedented.
It has been horrifically cold, horrifically dull and horrifically wet. Last May was nowhere near as good as this month has been terrible. An extremely cold spell last year brought the latest snow since 1975 and 8 colder than average maximums including two that were more than 5C below average: 7.1 on the 10th and 7.8 on the 13th. Only four days this month have reached average maxima with a shockingly bad absolute high of 15.5C - so nothing more than 2C above average
If there ever has been such a protracted period of consistently well above average temperatures on a par with the past month then it could only have been July/August 1995. Certainly not recently.
Also last May recorded 236 hours sun which is 35 hours above average. Equivalent below average would be 166 hours which is what 2019 recorded. This month has so far recorded 90 hours I wasn't that far north but Altnaharra has recorded 48 hours which is beyond credulity.
The latest in a run of dire Mays since 2014. The worst run since the horrifying 1967-73 period which was the May equivalent of 2007-12 summers. Really concerning that the permacast hell which turned June from the best month of the year into the worst seems to be spreading into May leaving April as the sunniest month now. We've also now seen wintry precipiation in three successive Mays for only the second time in 70 years, the other being 1995-97
2014, 2015 and 2019 were all ghastly Mays. 2016 poor as well with lots of anticylonic gloom. 2021 makes all of them seem acceptable by comparison
This last year has been a total nightmare made so much worse by the godawful weather which could not have been worse. Four consecutive wetter than average seasons which I don't think has happened since 1997/98 and closing in on a 12-month metre of rain. What the hell next?
June 2007
July 2012
August 1963
September 1976
Just no floor on how low things can sink any more
Aberdeen: The only place that misses out on everything
2023 - The Year that's Constantly Worse than a Bad November