Crazy weather

Last week, the record for the hottest March day in Scotland on three consecutive days (23.6C in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire on 29 March won the prize) but today they're forecast snow.  Bonkers.

We thought we'd take this opportunity to round up some other interesting weather facts...

1. The oldest weather records date from the 1730s and are held at the National Meteorological Library and Archive.  Temperature and precipitation records began in 1910, sunshine duration records in 1929, and records for other variables (such as frost, cloud cover and wind) in 1961.
2. The hottest daily maximum temperature in the UK (38.5C) was recorded in Faversham, Kent on 10 August 2003.
3. The highest temperature ever recorded globally was 57.8C in Libya in 1922
4. The coldest daily minimum temperature in the UK (-27.2C) was recorded (most recently) in Altnaharra, Highland 30 December 1995.
5. There were an estimated 25,700 excess winter deaths in England and Wales in 2010/11, virtually unchanged from the previous winter.
6. On 18 July 1955 there was 279mm of rain in Martinstown, Dorset in just 24 hours.
7. In the past decade, the most widespread occurrence of severe hail in Britain occurred on 7th June 1996 when hailstones typically 25 to 50mm across where deposited in large swathes from Dorset to Bedfordshire.
8. Names were first used widely for tropical cylones in World War II. In most regions pre-determined alphabetic lists of alternating male and female names are used. However, in the north-west Pacific the majority of names used are flowers, animals, birds, trees or foods
9. The shipping forecast is issued four times a day, 2300, 0500, 1100, 1700 GMT and covers the next 24 hours.  The waters around the British Isles are divided into 31 sea areas and contains details of gale warnings in force, a general synopsis and sea-area forecasts containg forecast wind direction and force, weather and visibility.
10. St Swithin's Day is 15 July every year.  The rhyme that forecasts forty days of rain or sun to follow is statistically true in 7 to 8 years out of 10.

Information from the Met Office, the Office of National Statistics, Weather Online