Weather and Climate
St Andrews has a temperate maritime climate, which is relatively mild despite its northerly latitude. Winters are not as cold as one might expect, considering that Moscow and Labrador in Newfoundland lie on the same latitude. Daytime temperatures can fall below freezing and average around 4 °C. However, the town is subject to strong winds. Night-time frosts are common; however, snowfall is more rare. The nearest official Met Office weather station for which data are available is at Leuchars, about 3.3 miles North West of St Andrews town centre.
The absolute maximum temperature is 30.8 °C (87.4 °F), recorded in August 1990. In a typical year, the warmest day should reach 26.1 °C (79.0 °F) and a total of 2 days should record a temperature of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above. The warmest calendar month (since 1960) was July 2006, with a mean temperature of 16.8 °C (62.2 °F) (mean maximum of 21.6 °C (70.9 °F), mean minimum of 11.9 °C (53.4 °F))
The absolute minimum temperature (since 1960) stands at −14.5 °C (5.9 °F) recorded during February 1972, although in an 'average' year, the coldest night should only fall to −8.3 °C (17.1 °F). Typically just short of 60 nights a year will experience an air frost. The coldest calendar month (since 1960) was December 2010, with a mean temperature of −0.8 °C (30.6 °F) (mean maximum 1.9 °C (35.4 °F), mean minimum −3.5 °C (25.7 °F) )
Rainfall, at little more than 650mm per year makes St Andrews one of the driest parts of Scotland, shielded from Atlantic weather systems by several mountain ranges. Over 1mm of rain is recorded on just under 117 days of the year.
Sunshine, averaging in excess of 1,500 hours a year is amongst the highest for Scotland, and comparable to inland parts of Southern England. St Andrews is about the furthest north annual levels of above 1500 hours are encountered.
All averages refer to the 1971-2000 observation period.
| Climate data for Leuchars, elevation 10m, 1971-2000, extremes 1960- | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 14.2 (57.6) |
15.2 (59.4) |
21.4 (70.5) |
23.1 (73.6) |
24.1 (75.4) |
29.1 (84.4) |
29.1 (84.4) |
30.8 (87.4) |
26.6 (79.9) |
23.2 (73.8) |
17.1 (62.8) |
14.9 (58.8) |
30.8 (87.4) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 6.3 (43.3) |
6.9 (44.4) |
9.0 (48.2) |
11.0 (51.8) |
13.6 (56.5) |
16.8 (62.2) |
19.0 (66.2) |
18.9 (66.0) |
16.2 (61.2) |
12.8 (55.0) |
9.0 (48.2) |
7.0 (44.6) |
12.2 (54.0) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 0.4 (32.7) |
0.6 (33.1) |
1.8 (35.2) |
3.2 (37.8) |
5.6 (42.1) |
8.4 (47.1) |
10.5 (50.9) |
10.3 (50.5) |
8.4 (47.1) |
5.7 (42.3) |
2.4 (36.3) |
1.1 (34.0) |
4.9 (40.8) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −13.7 (7.3) |
−14.5 (5.9) |
−11.7 (10.9) |
−5.8 (21.6) |
−3 (27) |
0.0 (32.0) |
2.4 (36.3) |
2.2 (36.0) |
−0.9 (30.4) |
−3.8 (25.2) |
−10.2 (13.6) |
−13.1 (8.4) |
−14.5 (5.9) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 68.6 (2.701) |
45.8 (1.803) |
49.5 (1.949) |
43.9 (1.728) |
49.5 (1.949) |
51.1 (2.012) |
46.8 (1.843) |
47.2 (1.858) |
61.7 (2.429) |
66.4 (2.614) |
57.3 (2.256) |
66.2 (2.606) |
653.9 (25.744) |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 58.9 | 76.6 | 119.0 | 152.1 | 195.0 | 191.1 | 190.7 | 173.9 | 133.2 | 105.4 | 77.4 | 49.9 | 1,523.2 |
| Source: Met Office | |||||||||||||
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