We had a near perfect environment throughout the duration of last night for maximum radiational cooling of which Central and east Highland Scotland observed the coldest temperatures. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports, positioned west of both cities and away from the urban heat island saw the thermometer surpass the previous ‘coldest of winter’ (-8C) set back in early December and dipped to -9C last night. Coldest of winter and indeed coldest since 2010 also eclipsing the -8C recorded last November at Glasgow Airport but a far cry from the chill of 2010 which it hit -12 to -14C, helped by prolonged days well below freezing and widespread snow cover.

Glasgow Airport last night

Had there been snow cover, we probably could’ve added another 2-4C on top of this morning’s chill and daytime highs certainly would have remained below freezing.

This morning’s chill was also relatively noteworthy up in the Grampians as per this tweet from Sean Batty

https://twitter.com/SeanBattySTV/status/950292670949322752

Our crisp start made for a beautiful winter’s day with unbroken ‘arctic blue’.

Clear skies made for great views of our snow covered mountains from space.

The sun is now setting here in Bonnybridge.

Frost will quickly reform in the still cold air with the thermometer likely heading back towards -3 to -5C before winds pick up and cloud rolls in from the SE overnight.

Check out the difference in 850mb temps between this evening and 6am tomorrow morning.

It’s a much duller, breezier, milder and at times wet second half to the work week.

Tags: edinburgh cold, glasgow cold