January Weather Report

January's rainfall total, at 171mm, was surprisingly low, the month being wet at each end and dry in the middle.  For the first six days we had heavy rain and hailstorms then, on the 10th, the weather cleared, the change heralded by a spectacular sunrise (above).

For the next seventeen days the wind tended to sit in the southeast, a direction that used to be unusual here.  It was a cold wind, the temperature struggling to reach above 5 Celsius most days but, with the exception of one day, we had surprisingly little rain.  Sadly, although we had nine days without precipitation, the lack of rain didn't mean we saw much of the sun, which really performed well on only two days.  By the 12th, the hills around us had a capping of snow - view here looks across to Ockle, with the hills of Moidart behind.

What we haven't had much of are the crisp, cold days that make walking in the hills such a pleasure in winter.  On the occasions we did have fine weather, the walking and scenery was superb - picture shows Ardnamurchan's north coast to the east of Plocaig.

Then, on the 26th, after a sunny start, the barometer fell below 1,000 millibars, the wind swung into the southwest, and it rained, some 26mm, over an inch, overnight and into the next morning, by which time the rain was falling at hail.  For the rest of the month we had near-gale to gale-force winds and further heavy rain - 73mm arriving in the last six days.  The picture above shows the view from Ardnamurchan Point Lighthouse looking northeast towards Bay McNeil on the last day of January.