Scotland East Climate
City Coverage: Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth, and St Andrews
This month in numbers
Scotland East experienced a significantly warmer and sunnier March 2026. The mean temperature for March was 5.5°C, an anomaly of +2.2°C above the 1961–1990 baseline, ranking it as the 11th warmest March in 127 years of records. Sunshine hours were particularly notable, with 143 hours recorded, an impressive 44 hours above average and the 6th sunniest March on record. Globally, April 2026 was the 2nd warmest April on record for land temperature, with an anomaly of +1.1°C.
What changed
Looking at the broader picture, the January–March 2026 period in Scotland East saw a mean temperature of 3.6°C, which is +1.4°C above the baseline, placing it as the 23rd warmest such period on record. Rainfall for this three-month period was considerably higher than average, at 381.1 mm, an increase of 97.5 mm, making it the 12th wettest January–March on record. This contrasts with the national picture for March, where Scotland was wetter than average overall but with regional variations from west to east. The region also saw 13 fewer frost days than average over the January-March period, ranking as the 14th fewest on record, meaning fewer mornings scraping ice off the car compared to a typical winter.
What’s driving change?
The warmer conditions and reduced frost days are consistent with broader observed at higher latitudes. The current ENSO state is Neutral, with an anomaly of +0.11°C, though there is a dominant forecast for El Niño to develop by May-Jul 2026, with an 61% probability, which typically brings cooler conditions to Northern Europe during winter months ENSO tracker. Scotland East experienced a concentration of wildfire activity recently, with one wildfire event between April 25 and May 1, 2026, representing 100% of the annual total for the past 12 months, which is an unusual concentration for the region. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service issued warnings of a "very high risk" of wildfire across central and eastern Scotland from April 24-26 due to dry weather conditions. More recently, an extreme risk of wildfire was in place for the whole of Scotland from April 30 to May 1, 2026. You can track active extreme weather events at Extreme Weather tracker.
Generated by Gemini from climate data and web sources
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Data Sources
Data Sources for Scotland East
Every figure on this page is sourced from official, openly published climate datasets. Anomalies are calculated against the 1961–1990 baseline (temperature) and 1991–2020 (rainfall, sunshine, frost) — see the Methodology & Sources page for the complete dataset list and update calendar.
FAQs
FAQs
How is the climate in Scotland East changing?
Scotland East is warming in line with the rest of the world. The page above shows the latest monthly temperature anomaly versus the 1961-1990 baseline, the long-term annual trend, and the region's rank in the historical record. The trend rate is shown as °C per decade in the headline panel; you can also see the warmest and coolest years on file.
Where does the climate data for Scotland East come from?
Climate data for Scotland East comes from the UK Met Office HadUK-Grid (temperature, rainfall, sunshine, air frost), refreshed every month, when the upstream temperature and rainfall data are refreshed.
What is the climate baseline used on this page?
Anomalies on this page are calculated against the 1961-1990 climatological baseline, which is the standard reference period used by the Met Office, NOAA, IPCC and most national climate services. Some panels also show the source-native 1901-2000 (NOAA) or 1991-2020 (WMO) baselines for verification. See Methodology & Sources for the full reference.
Which areas does the Scotland East climate data cover?
The Scotland East climate profile covers Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth and surrounding areas. Eastern Scotland climate data from Edinburgh to Aberdeen
How often is the Scotland East climate update refreshed?
The Scotland East climate update is refreshed monthly, typically a few days after the previous month closes and the upstream provider (Met Office HadUK-Grid, NOAA Climate at a Glance, Copernicus ERA5 or the Global Carbon Project) publishes its update. See the Climate Rankings for cross-region comparisons.