Scotland’s weather: Springtime shivers as Arctic snap to continue

SCOTLAND was hit by sub-zero temperatures and parts of the Highlands were blanketed with snow as winter returned at the weekend, with forecasters predicting the cold snap will continue through the week.

Overnight temperatures fell to as low as -5.5C at Kinbrace near Wick in the early hours of yesterday, and -4C in Eskdalemuir in Dumfriesshire.

In the Central Belt, temperatures in Glasgow and Edinburgh hovered just above freezing.

Ian Robertson, a forecaster for the Met Office in Aberdeen, said a large area of low pressure over Scandanavia was to blame for the cold snap.

He said: “It’s currently pulling in winds from up in the Arctic Circle and that’s bringing cold air across Scotland. As that cold air travels across the warm seas, it generates showers and that’s what’s been pushing into Scotland.

“It’s just kept feeding cold air down, and it’s brought wintry showers to low levels, particularly across Shetland and the surrounding area – they’ve seen sleet at low levels.

“Although there’s been brief snow showers at low levels, it’s on higher ground, above 300 or 400 metres, that it is really falling as snow, which is making some of the fields develop snow cover.”

The wintry weather is in stark contrast to the brief heatwave that swept the country in late March, when temperatures climbed to well above 20C.

Mr Robertson said that while people might be shocked at seeing snow so late in the year, it was the prolonged run of cold temperatures that Scotland has been experiencing that was less usual.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the norm, it’s reasonably unusual, but it’s not unheard of. What is unusual is that it’s been like this for the past month,” he said.