Extremes

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Meteorologically, the weather in Scotland is rather mild.  The temperature in the winter rarely dips below 32 degrees Fahrenheit and in the summer rarely goes above 70.  Despite the relatively high latitude, it doesn't snow much, nor is there much hail or even thunderstorm activity to contend with.

This may be true on paper.  Nevertheless, I find Scottish weather (or at least Edinburgh weather) to be a study in extremes.  It is either so stunningly beautiful that it seems that the heavens are smiling down on our fair city, or else it is so depressing that you just want to close the curtains and crawl back into bed.  Sadly, I fear that our fair city is drifting toward the latter extreme.  A few weeks ago, we had a brief summertime here.  It was glorious and it lasted approximately one week.  The temperatures were high, the sun was out, there was little wind, and people of all ages were laying out on blankets in the park as if it was the beach.  But then the rain returned.  And, a dew days ago, an ominous haar drifted in from the North Sea  (I've spoken of the haar on here before, right?).  Each afternoon, the sun gets warm and it gets close to burning it off, but the fog is thick and insidious, and tends to roll back in during the early evening, blanketing everything.  In terms of weather phenomena, there's really nothing much worse than a fog, as it takes away everything: not only the sun, but the sea, the hills, even the buildings down the street.

Such a tumultuous place for such a 'mild' climate.  I'm hoping summer returns before the end of the summer.