UKC

I have just spent a week cycling through Skye and the Outer Hebrides and it didn't rain a drop!

Had I known this, I would have come before.

In reply to Kimono:

I spent 9 days in Cairngorms last summer and I didn't need a waterproof at all. Even one bog described as "one of the worst bogs ever" was completely dry!

Though the next day I came back home, the weather was very stormy and rainy.

In reply to Kimono:


but it does pour.

In reply to Kimono:

I've always been impressed in Edinburgh how it can be definitely not raining but you still get totally soaked in 5 minutes. A kind of misty not-quite-falling-down that will last for days.

In reply to Bob_the_Builder:

It's called the Haar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haar_(fog)

In reply to Stevie989:

Cycling in the harr is always fun, but this particular not-rain is different. It isn't foggy, just wet.

But the harr around the Firth of Forth is really interesting, it usually only affects either the north or the south coast but not both at the same time.

In reply to Kimono:

I was away on Ling last summer with my yank missus.. not one drop of rain.. stunning. When its like that the west coast of scotland is unbeatable..

In reply to IainRUK:

About 10 years or so ago, I went up to Edinburgh to meet my mate to do the Cuillin Traverse over the next two days.
The weather forecast for the weekend had the whole of UK covered in heavy rain, apart from Skye, glorious sunshine, and that was what is was like.
Too sodding hot in the end, burnt out about halfway!!!

In reply to Bob_the_Builder:

Sma' rain.

In reply to Bob_the_Builder:


( I had seen this before as I spent a lot of time in St Andrews, but the Polish visitor said she had never experienced this before. )

In reply to IainRUK:

Aye, don't broadcast the fact. I've had so much fantastic weather in Scotland over the years it beggars belief.

In reply to Kimono:

A very amusing thread. It is a fairly dry July this year.

I have been saying for years that, in the Highlands, three things hit us in a normal July:
- Midges
- Rain
- The English holidays

The Dutch and Belgians come here in May and June and go home telling everyone how fantastic the weather is in Scotland then the English arrive in mid-July and go home saying the weather is dreadful and it rains all the time.

The real truth is that all across these islands it is dry in the east and wet in the west. Lochaber and the Lakes are the same. The Moray Firth and Lincolnshire are the same. There are a few differences in seasonal patterns though. Certainly in Inverness it tends to rain for a bit and then stay dry for substantial periods. London, with slightly higher but comparable annual rainfall doesn't have the heavy showers spilling from nearby mountains but has some rain on most days.

In reply to Jim Fraser:

My parents have a place up near Fettercairn, one of the sunniest places in the UK in terms of hours of sun shine.. Obviously not great temperatures but long periods of rain don't really happen that often.

We once did a 2 week holiday on Loch Awe in July, and it rained solidly for 2 weeks.. When I first moved to Glasgow we had 100 days of rain at some point every day.

In reply to IainRUK:

>When I first moved to Glasgow we had 100 days of rain at some point every day.

We had the same in Cornwall in 2001, just before the foot & mouth outbreak.

In reply to mbh:

yeah it was 2001..

In reply to Kimono:

I tend to find it mostly rains at the weekends.

In reply to Kimono:

My all-time favourite Highland weather story is certain pretty lady from Llanidloes in the phone box at Kyle of Lochalsh pier talking to her Mum back in Wales after her first couple of weeks living on Skye in 1986.

"It doesn't really rain here like it does at home. It just rains for a bit and then stops."

In reply to Jim Fraser:

My first ever holiday in Scotland was on Skye, the first week it hammered it down every day, being young and keen we still climbed every day. The following week was a heatwave, to such an extent that I ran out of water on the Cuillin Ridge and ended up squeezing moss for a drink, in fact I packed it in at one point and descended a gully only to find a spring about 100ft below the ridge, filled myself and my bottle and returned up the gully to complete the ridge. I was later told this was the only water spot on the ridge. Jammy or what.

In reply to Al Evans:

Jammy Al, definitely.

Doing the Cuilin ridge on a nice day is always a mistake!

Cool September in a like breeze is my preference.

In reply to Kimono:
As an addendum to my OP I would also like to add that, since moving to North Wales last year, it doesn't seem to rain here either!

The hills around Llangollen are actually brown

In reply to Kimono:

Just spent six days from Ardrossan-Oban-Ardnamurchan-Skye-Poolewe-Ullapool-Durness-Melvich-Lairg-Fort William-Gourock-Ardrossan and not a drop of rain, and barely any cloud cover. I've been to the far North West a few times before but to see it like that was a real privilege, even if I didn't have chance to do much. Scotland on its day is as good as anywhere.

In reply to nw:

Just back from the Cairngorms, I arrived in the middle of a thunderstorm and torrential downpour, walked to the bothy in the rain listening to the thunder. Listened to the rain on the bothy roof and saw nothing about 900m today, gloves on up high, showers lower down on the walk out but back to normal I'd say.