"Trevor Harley" wrote in message
news:2007060217595516807-taharley@dundeeacuk...
I see Sunderland and Tynemouth are enjoying 21C today; is it really the
case that a few extra miles of width of the North Sea makes so much
difference, or is there some other factor I'm forgetting?

I live in Sunderland, and I can assure you that 21C was not reached in my
neck of the woods.

I live about 300 metres from the sea and the fog and mist kept the
temperatures pegged at around 12-14C. I drove a few miles inland this
afternoon to Durham where it was hovering around 22C in lovely warm
sunshine.

Arrived back home at around 4pm to discover the sea mist had retreated, but
the air temps were still around 14C although it felt a little warmer when
the sun shone.

You only had to venture about a mile inland to find the sunshine, but a
little further still before the temperature began to feel appreciably warm.

Regards... David Allan.

On Jun 3, 4:59 am, Trevor Harley wrote:
Haar all day, the mist just lifting a little now ... the virtual
mercury has reached the giddy heights of 12.1C, but the wind is biting
...

Given that so much of the UK's finest weather comes on Es and SEs,
Dundee frequently shivers while the rest of the country basks. I
wouldn't mind so much if we had the compensation of heavy rain,
interesting thunderstorms, severe frosts, or frequent blizzards.

I'm not sure though why this part of east Scotland is as bad as it is.
I see Sunderland and Tynemouth are enjoying 21C today; is it really the
case that a few extra miles of width of the North Sea makes so much
difference, or is there some other factor I'm forgetting? One argument
against the North Sea being the only explanation is that it's 20C in
Orkney, and the wind must be travelling across an even greater expanse
of sea there.

Trevor
Weather;http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~taharley/

According to the means table from your site, your station has an
annual Tmean of about 9.2-9.3C. This is not bad in a Scottish context
and the Met. office's little site list of selected stations shows
annual Tmeans (1971-2000) for both Leuchars and Edinburgh to be about
8.6C. I also note that on their list, Leuchars with an annual average
of 1523 hrs sunshine seems to be highest of the Scottish locations by
a comfortable margin. Is Dundee so very different in that respect?
What is its annual mean?

It's been an absolutely diabolical weekend here. Max of just 11.7C
yesterday and up to 13.4C today. It's now fallen back to 12.4C which
is about the same as it was through the night on 31st January.
Sunshine total has been 24 minutes so far. It's been worse than any
weekend in the past year with the exception of a couple of weekends in
February.

However Thursday and Friday were both fine days here, despite the
winds coming off the North Sea. 13.6 hours of sun and a max of 15.9C
on Thursday, 12.6 hours sun with a max of 16.7C on Friday.

Richard Slessor,
Aberdeen.

On 2007-06-03 08:25:19 +0100, RWood said:
I also note that on their list, Leuchars with an annual average
of 1523 hrs sunshine seems to be highest of the Scottish locations by
a comfortable margin. Is Dundee so very different in that respect?

A little while ago there were boards all over Dundee saying "Dundee:
First electric lighting in Britain" and "Dundee: Sunniest city in
Scotland".

While that's probably true (the sunniest city bit at least), my
complaint is that the sunshine happens when it's cool - or at least,
not hot. When there's really hot weather across the rest of the country
(and I am one of those that love hot, sunny weather), it's often dismal
here.

This weekend, for example, has been utterly, completely, unforgettably
depressing.


Trevor