There is a common saying in New England that if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. From what I've experienced over here, that's how it is in St. Andrews! I know a lot of you must be wondering about the weather in Scotland and how Pat and I are enjoying it. Is it like England? Does it rain all the time? Is it cold? I've wanted to write a weather post for a while now, but I also wanted to experience the weather so I could actually inform everyone. Because St. Andrews is right near the water, the air and clouds tend to get pulled around very quickly, resulting in more erratic weather.
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| Lovely September day in St. Andrews, but still cold enough to put on a jacket. |
The first day we arrived in Edinburgh at the beginning of September, we walked out of the airport into the chilly, drizzly, windy air of Scotland and a piece of debris flew right into my eye. Welcome to Scotland, eh? According to our driver (bringing us north to St. Andrews), apparently the weather was acting up and it had actually been delightful the previous week. She wasn't wrong, because the following weeks were very nice, hardly any rain of clouds. I had come with the preconceived notion that it would be overcast and rainy almost every day, but it was a great beginning to our time here.
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| September 25th, still beautiful! See my post about Sunday by The Scores! |
But this was short lived. It got colder as the year went on, and got to the point where it was overcast most days, which can get a bit depressing. By the end of October, we were bundling up and fighting off the cold. The worst part though, for me at least, had to be the biting wind. While the air was generally average in temperature for November and December, the wind brought ice into my bones that just would not let up. But because the air wasn't too cold, it would sometimes rain and just go straight through you; the kind of cold that doesn't leave you, even when you've been indoors for a while after. This is where a piping hot cup of tea comes in handy.
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| One of the first "snowstorms" here. This was about as bad as it got. |
Winter here isn't very snowy, but like I said, it is windy and cold. After vising New England for Christmas and New Years, I was able to really pinpoint a difference between the two regions. New England was covered in snow, cold, and very very dry. This dryness isn't around in Scotland. It's actually quite moist (which may be why the cold sinks into you) and yet there isn't much snow. When Pat and I arrived back to St. Andrews, it snowed a few days on an off, but nothing ever accumulates; by the next day, it's all gone. There was one day in particular that made me think of that "wait five minutes" saying: it was a nice sunny morning, not a cloud in the sky, but at one point the whole room went dark. I thought Pat had closed the shades, but I turned and it was a white-out blizzard! A little while later the sun was back out.
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| This is what it looks like now: generally overcast, chilly, mildly damp. |
It's getting towards the end of February now, and the weather is starting to get a bit more mild. It hasn't snowed in a couple weeks and unless this is like New England and we get a random April or May snowstorm, I think we're probably not going to get much of anything else for the year. This past week we've had a few days where the temperature got up to about 50F, but mostly it hovers around 40-45F. I'm just waiting for more consistent days of warmer weather in the 50s and even 60s and more sun! As the year goes on, the sun is setting later and later in the day, which is great because I'm not really a fan of the 3:30pm sunsets. I have a feeling Summer will be here in no time!
Cheers!
