Weather in Scotland

[Idontpostmuch]

Why does everyone assume Scottish weather is extremely cold? No matter what the discussion is about, it often creeps in. Have just been reading a thread about efficiency of heat pumps, and someone said they might work in the south east of England, but not in the cold centre of Scotland. In fact, apart from way up in Aberdeenshire, Invernesshire and surrounding areas, Scotland is relatively temperate. The central belt, where the bulk of the population live, rarely gets snow, a lot less than parts of Yorkshire, Derbyshire and even Kent. As a Scottish person who has lived for some years in Cambridge, I can confirm that most of the West of Scotland, while much wetter, is not significantly colder in winter, just cooler in Summer. Jokes like 'You're scottish, you must be used to cold' get tiresome and aren't even based on fact.

I agree. Most of the posters that generalise Scotland like it’s like living in the artic circle. I live 20 miles out of Inverness and we don’t seem to get the extremes of weather that you get further south. Yes,
I understand our temps are lower, but it’s manageable and have never been unable to get to work because of the weather. We have been basking in glorious sunshine today 😊. Roll on spring!

Well Scotland is on average about 7-10°C colder than the average temperature in England and we have a higher average rain and snow falls so it's actually accurate. Whilst there will be some parts of England that has the same or worse weather than parts of Scotland they are the exception not the norm. Also the central belt of Scotland is just 1 small part and is not representative of all of Scotland

My mum lives in Aberdeenshire and has had temperatures higher there than I have had in West Surrey.

The weather is often a topic of conversation.

I've lived in the south of England and now in Scotland and winters don't really seem too different temperature wise (although more miserable due to even shorter days) but spring, summer and autumn are really a lot cooler. My family down south like to come up here in the summer to escape the heat.

I mean, I’m in the central belt and it’s snowing right now….😂

Quite right. It's as much an east-west divide as north-south divide.In my west of Scotland garden I grow very many sub-tropical plants. If they'll take winter wet they're fine. We seldom get the low temperatures common in, for instance, the Midlands.
Logan Botanic Garden on the Galloway coast has avenues of tree ferns and palms, and the sort of flora normally expected in Cornwall. Its not the only Gulf Stream garden- they are all along the west coast. I'm further inland, but still mild and temperate.
Not to say it's the Cote d'Azure here in summer. We have high rainfall and it seldom gets as hot as the south-east. But extremely low temperatures are rare in winter and we don't get much snow.

Kent is super hot in summer compared to Scotland. And naturally south of England is going to be hotter.

I drove from England to Dundee on Thursday via Edinburgh. I can confirm there was snow in England, a little bit in the borders and none on the East coast of Scotland. The sun has been shining and it's actually been lovely.

That's just one day mind you 😂

The West Coast of Scotland is the best place on Earth.
5 weeks time I will be there!
No wrong weather.
Just the wrong clothes!

Snowing coming down braw in Central belt right now yeay

It's snowing!!! My dogs are so excited 😁

Edinburgh is mild and it very rarely rains!

I live in N-East Scotland and there is snow that fell four days ago, still covering most of my garden today. True, the past two days have been sunshine but the temp was still 5C>. It is on average, considerably colder than England and this feels even colder with the winds coming off the North Sea. I have even seen snow fall in June, once.

I love the weather on the west coast of Scotland, as a ginger it is perfect for me. I think the weather here is fantastic when you consider how far north we are, we should be part of the artic circle but the Gulf Stream protects us. So what if that makes it a bit wet, we could be as cold as Canada or Russia. You just need to right clothes.

Yes, but in my original post I said Scotland was much cooler in Summer. It's Winter I'm talking about, and it's winter weather that's assumed to be almost arctic as soon as you cross the border, which just isn't true.

I moved to Scotland from England and I was conned. All my life I'd been convinced that Scotland was colder and snowier than where I was (NW England). Oh how wrong I was.

My DSIS still lives in England and we've nowhere near the winters she has. No deep snow here in years whereas DSis has been snowed in plenty of times. Motorways have ground to a halt and schools have been shut down in England. Here, the most wintery thing I've had is watching for gritters and the kids and I having a game of guess the gritter name.
Spready Mercury and The Polar Express are firm favourites right now.

Lol yes we are in Kent and DS at Uni in Scotland, pissed off we have had snow and he hasn’t 😂

I liked the climate at home (Argyll). But I don't miss the midgies 😣.

Some years ago we had a hailstorm in June here in Cambridge

Are you serious? Edinburgh has a cold wind blowing nearly all year long. It’s much colder than the south of England. It also rains a lot. Often in the summer for weeks on end.

Yes you make a good point. East West is just as significant as North South. Here in East England we get very little rain (pouring down at the moment haha), in the same way as Edinburgh much drier than Glasgow. But Edinburgh noted for cold wind that Glasgow often escapes, just as Cambridge is known forbcold wind from Nov to March.

can’t think why people would think scotland is colder than SE England

Thanks to everyone who's joined in. I hadn't expected any replies, but we can always rely on this forum for an interesting discussion. Just want to share an anecdote: some years ago I was on a train on the main East coast line. At that time more of them went right through to Glasgow, via Motherwell, a long way round but cutting out the need to change trains at Waverley. Sitting next to me was a lady having a long weekend break in Glasgow. I was wearing a medium warmth coat while she was wearing a very warm ski coat. She remarked that her ski salopettes were in her bag. With the sinking heart that comes with the knowledge that you're about to disappoint someone, I pointed out that it wasn't ski season (in fact there had been virtually no season that particular mild winter.) She was unperturbed and stated the gear was just to keep warm. Well, the temp in Glasgow was 10 degrees, set to remain so right through the weekend, and even in the middle of the night was forecast to go no lower than 8 degrees. Actually, when you think about it, the whole of the UK is very mild given its latitude. We're farther north than Toronto.

Ummm is this sarcasm by any chance? lol.