Here in Edinburgh, I've actually forgotten what a really wet spell of weather is like because it is now so long ago since we had last had one that I've even forgotten when that was.
However, I've noticed that Richard from Aberdeen has been complaining a lot recently about the most recent sunshine totals in his area. As this is the moaning thread, he is fully entitled to do that but in doing so, he should at least spare a thought on what it have like recently here in Edinburgh on that front.
Here, we have just had a completely sunless weekend at Edinburgh Gogarbank and with just another 10 days left of this month after today, we have had a total of just 77.6 hours of sunshine during this month so far at Edinburgh Gogarbank which is just a rather miserable 40.9% of the 1991-2020 May average for that particular station. Richard has at least reported that he has had just over a half of his own May average for his own neck of the woods, but we haven't even managed to achieve that here in Edinburgh.
Even on our sunniest day of this month so far, a total of just under 12 hours of sunshine was recorded for that particular day, but this is actually no better than what we had back in March which the same month as when the Vernal Equinox occurs. Yet, we are now only a month away from the summer solstice and at this time of the year, we should therefore be able to achieve a total of more than 12 hours of sunshine quite comfortably on at least a number of occasions.
The fact that we have still not recorded a daily sunshine total of more than 12 hours of sunshine (with only a very short time left to go until the end of the month as well) within what is actually our sunniest month of the year according to our 1991-2020 averages is actually rather pathetic!!😡
Normally, those totals would be better at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh which are normally sunnier than Edinburgh Gogarbank on average. However, the botanic gardens in Edinburgh are closer to the east coast than Edinburgh Gogarbank and because of the predominance of winds from off the North Sea during this spring, that hasn't been the case this time and so, the totals for the botanic gardens are actually even worse on this occasion.
The botanic gardens in Edinburgh is a SYNOP station (along with Edinburgh Gogarbank), but is not in the WMO's list of stations (it doesn't have a WMO number which starts with '03'). Because of that, the sunshine totals which I have for there are never as much up to date as they are for Edinburgh Gogarbank as I have rely on getting that data from the Met Office WOW site (the data for there which I get from weatherobs doesn't include that sunshine data). However, the data which I have for there is only a day or two behind the data for Edinburgh Gogarbank.
As I write, I currently have the sunshine data for the botanic gardens in Edinburgh up to 19 May 2023 but at that point in time, a total of just 65.1 hours of sunshine had been recorded there during this month with that amounting just a miserable 33.4% of that stations 1991-2020 May average, and with a total of just 9.8 hours of sunshine on the sunniest day of this month so far (that is even lass than that figure was for both March and April, and not all that much better than what it was for February despite this month being our sunniest month of the year on average😡).
Finally and with just 10 days left of this month, Edinburgh has still not had a single temperature during this year of 20°C or more. If that doesn't happen before the end of this month, this will be the first spring which I can remember when that was actually the case and if that happens, it will very much be the polar opposite of us going through an entire autumn and into the following winter without a single air frost being recorded here.
Absolutely pathetic!!😡
The north of Edinburgh, usually always missing out on snow events which occur not just within the rest of Scotland or the UK, but also within the rest of Edinburgh.