For five decades Perthshire man Norman Pedgrift has kept a keen eye on the weather in the region.
And once again he has completed his annual weather report for the PA.
In a year like no other, the weather also played its part with horrific rainfall in August.
Overall, 2020 was a warm and wet year. One wonders what 2021 will bring us…
The year opened very mild and for a normally wet month, January was unusually dry.
However, after a moderate first week, February settled into its stride.
While temperatures were normal, rainfall amounts quickly built from the eighth and by mid-month the total reached 120mm, with a further 88mm by the close making it the wettest February of any in the 53 years recorded in the area.
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March behaved normally for a while, but in the closing half we had only 9mm of rain. Then with 1mm over the first half of April and just eight more by its end, the total was only 18mm over a six week period.
Although farmers round about were showing concern, many of us were happy, especially as temperatures continued to rise.
May continued the trend with only 10mm of rain in the first three weeks.
A run of air frosts affected later shrub and tree blossoms and the increasing aridity was taking its toll.
The onset of the summer brought an end to the dry run.
While June gave us useful rainfall, July saw still more, but sadly a significant drop in temperatures.
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With few sunny days and no run of dry weather, it was hardly “summertime”. But we still had August to look forward to…or did we?
Although temperatures recovered to average, the talking point regarding weather was rainfall.
This culminated on the 11th with an all-night display of lightning coupled with loud thunderclaps and downpours of rain.
The 24-hour record totalled 105mm, beating that of July 26, 1985 of 82mm.
With more heavy rain later in the month the total of 203mm was a record high for August. Overall, it made for a wet summer (June-August) in complete contrast to the spring (March-May).
Now for the autumn. The first half of September was pleasingly warm with modest rain and the second half distinctly cool but dry up to the final day, which saw 23mm.
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At least grain harvesting raced ahead in the area.
October saw a return of substantial rain with 56mm on the third.
The trend continued to produce a further wet month.
November was much kinder, but with other matters concerning us it was hardly balmy.
December closed the year with a further wet start and follow through, although from the 20th a seasonal period of frost with a picturesque snowfall almost cheered us up.
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But, of course, by then other matters were taking us over again.
• Highest temperature: 28.1°C on May 29
• Lowest temperature: -3.8°C on December 31
• Air frost on 43 days
• Measurable rainfall on 205 days
• Wettest 24-hour period (9am to 9am GMT): 105mm on August 11
• Days with snow: 18
-- to www.dailyrecord.co.uk
