Perthshire's coldest winter in decades

Mar 5 2010 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

WEATHER recorder Norman Pedgrift yesterday provided statistical proof of winter’s Arctic-grip on Perthshire.

His readings over December, January and February showed the mercury plummeted lower than any winter since he started collecting daily temperature and precipitation data 43 years ago.

Readings at his Forgandenny home showed February overall was cold and fairly dry.

The temperature averaged 1.3C (34.4F), compared with Mr Pedgrift’s own 3.7C (38.7F) average February readings.

Rainfall totalled 49mm compared with his February average of 65mm.

“For the first week it was within a degree of average, but temperatures returned to cold and then very cold,” detailed Mr Pedgrift. “The lowest was minus 8.5 on the 23rd and we had 17 air frosts all told.

“The month was dry and quite sunny, but on the 24th 7cm of wet snow gave us 31.2mm of water, followed by 6mm of water after sleet and rain the next day.

“This winter – December, January and February – has been the coldest recorded.

“The daily average for the 90 days was 0.5C compared with the normal average of 3.6C, making it consistently 3.1C below average.”