How is Scotland on track for wettest, driest and cloudiest winter in years?

The contrasts across Scotland this winter could hardly be more striking.

Aberdeenshire is on track for what looks like its wettest winter in a decade, while the north Highlands and the Western Isles may be experiencing their driest in 16 years.

How can such extremes occur in a relatively small country?

The answer largely comes down to wind direction and mountains.

A persistent easterly to south-easterly flow through much of January and into February brought weeks of rain to eastern Scotland, particularly around Aberdeen and the shire.

Flooding in Kintore, Aberdeenshire. STV News

By the time this moisture-laden air reaches the Grampians on its way to the north and west Highlands, most of its water has been squeezed out as rain — or snow — on the mountains.

The result is much drier air reaching the other side of the country.

Some areas have seen dramatic differences from the usual rainfall. Around Loch Assynt, for example, winter precipitation has amounted to only about a third of the typical total so far.

To find a wetter winter in Aberdeenshire, you have to go back to 2015/16. For a winter as dry as this one in the north Highlands, you need to go as far back as 2009/10.

Despite the heavy rain in the east, this winter has been beneficial in terms of water supply.

Reservoirs in parts of eastern Scotland were running unusually low before the season, but recent rainfall has helped restore levels.

In the north, the drier conditions have had a minor effect, with reservoirs about 4% below average — not significant, mostly because water stores were in better shape here back in the autumn.

Saying that, the River Cassley and Oykel are now running much lower than usual.

Perhaps the biggest national headline this winter has been cloud cover.

With about two weeks left in the meteorological season, conditions are expected to remain mixed, so I don’t expect any sudden big leaps in sunshine amounts.

Looking at the historical records, Scotland could be on course for its cloudiest winter since 1998.

However, if we manage to average around two hours of sunshine per day nationwide over the next few weeks, we could avoid that headline.

Even then, it would still rank as the cloudiest winter since 2013/14 — which might not sound especially remarkable until you realise that season was Scotland’s 13th cloudiest on record, in a dataset stretching all the way back to 1910.

We’ll have the official winter figures in just a few weeks’ time, but after such a persistently grey season, many of us will be hoping spring brings plenty of much-needed sunshine.