Official max of -2.4C yesterday and 9.6 hours of sunshine. It was the coldest by night, coldest by day and sunniest place in the UK yesterday. 

Impressive!

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Lowest overnight from the official network appears to be -13.6C at Altnaharra. 

Lowest from the PWS network was -14.1C at Kinbrace.

Interesting to watch this evening's fall in temperature especially over those areas with deep, fresh snow.

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Met Office automated says -10c at Leeds/Bradford tonight which would be extremely impressive given it is on the top of a hill.  Sceptical of that but could be some very low mins round here in any valleys that retain good snow cover particularly the higher valleys up into the Dales. 

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It's looking like there could be quite a run of sub -10 minimas over the UK, mainly in Scotland of course... pretty noteworthy for the time of year, I'd suggest!

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So the conditions in the end didn't appear to lead to especially low temperatures overnight across Wales, central and northern England. Lowest from the official network was around -7C.

It was also not so cold over most of Scotland, with minima down to about -10C in the colder spots.

The outlier is Altnaharra. There was a moderate snow shower there around midnight with the temperature just below zero. At 0200 it was -4C and cloudy then the low and middle cloud cleared and the temperature plunged down to -15C by 0700. Lowest minimum was-15.7C! Incredible place.

So for the last 4 night, minima there have been:
-14.6C, -16.0C, -13.6C and -15.7C

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Can't get any exceptionally low temperatures out of this cold spell despite snow on the ground since Tuesday and abundance of clear skies.

The reason is the same as always. The wind won't drop out. Not been particularly windy but it just persists all the time. In the past I would wake to find my weather station hadn't recorded a breath of wind since midnight. Just never happens any more.

Lowest has been -6.1C which only equals my record low from 2010 which was recorded with no snow on the ground so should be getting a lot lower with a snow covering. Was well on track last night with -3.3C by 9:30pm but then the wind picked up and that was as low as it got 🙄

Still had five sub-zero readings in a row which is one more than in the entirety of the preceeding two months of dire non-winter weather. Also notable that March has recorded a lower temperature than both January and February for the second year in a row when this had never preivously happened in my 18 years of records.

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Given the snow cover as seen here from NASA today  it’s not surprising that Altnaharra has been recording such low minima.

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-11.1C and -11.0C on two consecutive nights followed by a -7C  is pretty cold for our area for this time of year .

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So thanks to the quirks of climate station recording periods, Altnaharra will actually be credited officially with 5 consecutive nights below -10C, from 8th to 12th March inclusive:

08 March -14.6C
09 March -16.0C
10 March -13.6C
11 March -15.7C
12 March -10.6C

The value of -10.6C credited to 12th March is the 24 hour minimum for the period 0900 GMT 11th March to 0900 GMT 12th March and this value was recorded at 0900 GMT the previous morning of 11th March. The 12-hour "overnight" minimum from 2100 GMT 11th March to 0900 GMT 12th March was just -2.3C, but the official UK climate records use the 24 hour minimum ending at 0900 GMT on that day, and -10.6C is the value that will be recorded in the MIDAS database. It has always been this way to maintain compatibility with older records when many of the climate stations were read once daily at 0900 GMT.

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OK one last post on this. I inspected MIDAS data to capture other instances of at least 5 consecutive days in March with a minimum temperature of -10C or below, and there are eleven separate instances from 1947, 1958, 1963, 2001 and 2010. The longest spell is 10 consecutive days at Balmoral in March 1947, and I'm sure hugely frustrating for Richard from Aberdeen, five consecutive days at Dyce in 1958!


1947-03-03 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -12.8
1947-03-04 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -17.8
1947-03-05 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -16.7
1947-03-06 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -17.8
1947-03-07 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -13.3
1947-03-08 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -19.4
1947-03-09 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -13.9
1947-03-10 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -12.2
1947-03-11 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -12.2
1947-03-12 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -17.2

1947-03-02 09:00:00   00286  FLOORS CASTLE            -11.1
1947-03-03 09:00:00   00286  FLOORS CASTLE            -13.3
1947-03-04 09:00:00   00286  FLOORS CASTLE            -16.1
1947-03-05 09:00:00   00286  FLOORS CASTLE            -10.5
1947-03-06 09:00:00   00286  FLOORS CASTLE            -12.7
1947-03-07 09:00:00   00286  FLOORS CASTLE            -12.2

1958-03-11 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -16.7
1958-03-12 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -18.9
1958-03-13 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -12.8
1958-03-14 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -16.1
1958-03-15 09:00:00   00148  BALMORAL                 -11.7

1958-03-11 09:00:00   00161  DYCE                     -15.0
1958-03-12 09:00:00   00161  DYCE                     -16.7
1958-03-13 09:00:00   00161  DYCE                     -14.4
1958-03-14 09:00:00   00161  DYCE                     -17.8
1958-03-15 09:00:00   00161  DYCE                     -13.3

1958-03-11 09:00:00   00140  GLENLIVET                -17.8
1958-03-12 09:00:00   00140  GLENLIVET                -19.4
1958-03-13 09:00:00   00140  GLENLIVET                -13.3
1958-03-14 09:00:00   00140  GLENLIVET                -19.4
1958-03-15 09:00:00   00140  GLENLIVET                -15.0

1963-03-01 09:00:00   00200  STRATHYRE                -12.2
1963-03-02 09:00:00   00200  STRATHYRE                -13.3
1963-03-03 09:00:00   00200  STRATHYRE                -12.2
1963-03-04 09:00:00   00200  STRATHYRE                -12.8
1963-03-05 09:00:00   00200  STRATHYRE                -11.1

1963-03-01 09:00:00   00265  MERTOUN                  -12.8
1963-03-02 09:00:00   00265  MERTOUN                  -13.3
1963-03-03 09:00:00   00265  MERTOUN                  -13.3
1963-03-04 09:00:00   00265  MERTOUN                  -13.3
1963-03-05 09:00:00   00265  MERTOUN                  -11.1

1963-03-01 09:00:00   00266  LAUDER                   -12.2
1963-03-02 09:00:00   00266  LAUDER                   -14.4
1963-03-03 09:00:00   00266  LAUDER                   -14.4
1963-03-04 09:00:00   00266  LAUDER                   -14.4
1963-03-05 09:00:00   00266  LAUDER                   -11.7

2001-03-02 09:00:00   00040  CASSLEY                  -10.4
2001-03-02 09:00:00   00040  CASSLEY                  -10.2
2001-03-03 09:00:00   00040  CASSLEY                  -12.4
2001-03-03 09:00:00   00040  CASSLEY                  -12.0
2001-03-04 09:00:00   00040  CASSLEY                  -11.3
2001-03-04 09:00:00   00040  CASSLEY                  -11.3

2010-03-01 09:00:00   30805  STRATHDEARN              -11.2
2010-03-02 09:00:00   30805  STRATHDEARN              -11.0
2010-03-03 09:00:00   30805  STRATHDEARN              -14.4
2010-03-04 09:00:00   30805  STRATHDEARN              -16.6
2010-03-05 09:00:00   30805  STRATHDEARN              -12.5
 

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