Drought

In the last month we've had 16 mm of precipitation.  On February 13th we had a downpour, with 23mm in one day, but since then the most we've had in a 24-hour period is 3mm, and there have been eighteen days without a drop.  While much of the time a southeasterly wind has blown in rather grey conditions, in the last few days the wind has been in the north, bringing some truly beautiful weather.  

As The Diary has mentioned on occasion, West Ardnamurchan is rapidly becoming the sunshine capital of the UK.  This picture shows an interesting sky over Mull on Tuesday evening, with rather unusual lenticular clouds.  The ferry passing up the Sound of Mull is the Lord of the Isles.

Yes, so it's only a dandelion, a plant which, in a couple of months, we'll be angrily digging out of our flower beds - but this is special in that it's the first of the year, another sign, along with the first daisy spotted on Craigard Croft, that spring is on its way.

This is a real sign that the season is changing - the first lamb in Kilchoan, born on Monday.  It's from one of Nan MacLachlan's sheep which is currently in an Ormsaigbeg field.  The ewe has chosen her moment to give birth very carefully, with the continuing sunny weather, even though it must be pretty cold at night - on Monday night the thermometer dropped to -3C.

Two Oceanographers from Marine Science Scotland arrived on Tuesday afternoon to instal an automated weather station in the bottom field of Trevor Potts' Ardnamurchan Campsite.  They had obviously done this several times before as the structure went up very rapidly.

The scientists, Jenny Wright on the left and Berit Rabe on the right, are monitoring surface current movements in Loch Sunart.  While this is part of a larger project studying the loch, one of the other things they are doing is tracing the movement of sea lice in the area.

The machine they've installed is a Davis Vantage View.  It measures temperature, rainfall, wind direction, barometric pressure, humidity and, if it's in a good mood, probably makes tea as well.  It sends the data wirelessly to a display which is in Trevor's care.  Needless to say, The Diary is somewhat envious of him being handed this super little device to care for, though he has promised to pass on the data.