Ballogie Weather

The mobile age. Podcasts & Twitter.

Posted 29/05/2011

Quite a few years ago I discovered something that, within a very short time seemed to die out.

This was the podcast; what a great idea, small bite sized bits of information or skit like shows, available on the internet for all, small in size and easy to download.

I remember having a comedy podcast series on my phone of that time and listening to it time and again, it was never kept going and further content gradually dwindled.

Then along came the Twitter like stuff and I assumed that this had taken over from the podcast, it is far more instant, easier for all to get involved in and still keeps followers up to date on their chosen subject.

So; the podcast had evolved into the tweet and had become pretty much extinct......NO.....HOW WRONG CAN YOU BE...... Podcasts are alive and well and breeding like the proverbial rabbits.

Thanks mainly to the new technology that is the smart phone (and Android apps), I have been re-acquainted with some excellent content and even paid for my first app in order to get an automatic download service.

Comedy, technology, news, chat etc all on my phone to listen to or watch as and when I want, kept up to date every day..... Oh! how the world is all fluffy again..

Tweets every few hours.

Posted 16/05/2011

Had some complaints about the frequency of the Tweets so have turned them down to every few hours.

May try to include some sort of forecast as well in the future.

10 Minute updates now on Twitter.

Posted 15/05/2011

Have decided to join the 21st Century and try Twitter so have configured Cumulus to upload basic text weather info every 10 minutes.

If it proves popular enough I will post other Tweets as well.

It should be easy enough to follow, just click the link above.

Driest, warmest April.

Posted 01/05/2011

Probably one of the driest and warmest April's on record. What a fantastic start to the year it has been.

Opinion is a bit divided on what the Summer will bring! If this continues my money is on wet and warm.

Funny old time of year this.

Posted 20/04/2011

Just finished a two week holiday period and now we head into three consecutive four day weeks what with these things called 'Bank Holidays' and all.

Some great weather though!!

Easter approaches. welcome the Easter holiday.

Posted 25/03/2011

In this part of Scotland anyway, the Easter School holidays start on 4th April for two weeks.

Getting excited!!

The holiday is over: Long live the holiday.

Posted 03/12/1011

Well nearly over.

Hope you all had a good one and enjoyed the mostly dreary damp grey weather that went with the thaw!

For some of us it was a good excuse to go visiting and catch up with friends and family so the weather was less important; even managed to get out under canvas (well nylon really) so had some fun as well (tent still drying out though).

Now it seems we are back to see the return of the Wintry precipitation and conditions we so love to hate up here.

Prediction for the year to come?

Posted 26/12/2010

We will call it Two Thousand and Eleven or Twenty Eleven, (your choice).

It will be 365 days long.

It will get warmer towards Summer and colder towards Winter.

But Temperatures will continue to fall!

Depressing December?

Posted 19/12/2010

Fed up with December?

Not me; too interesting for that!

The coldest, harshest Winter in living memory for a lot of people, and its only just begun.

Embrace it and lets see where it goes.

I said a while ago that the trends were showing a 1.5 to 2.5 deg fall in temperature in the past year or two; that is proving to be about right and is quite severe, so watch this space!

Even the professional weather forecasters are finding it hard; with predictions changing every few hours; we may as well wait and look out the window! But that wouldn't be fun now would it?

Chilling out to Joe!

Posted 09/12/2010

Don't normally do this sort of (twitter) thing, but hey it's December!

Recently moved the Rega into the day room so it's back in use.

Just chilling out to Joe Bonamassa, Live from the Royal Albert Hall and it reminds me so much of the last time I was there.

Can't remember the year but it was Eric Clapton with Phil Collins on drums and Mark Knopfler on guitar, now that was some gig!

Great album from Joe all the same.

That's no rain! That's thaw!

Posted 09/12/2010

OK! so not exactly correct, but the rain values being recorded at the moment are from the thaw of the laying snow.

Quick Bet!

Posted 02/12/2010

Will we make minus Ten C tonight?

Minus 12 C and 'D' gets the bottle. (Valid till 09:00 03/12/10)

Made -13.7 C

Winter forecast by J. Holden.

Posted 27/11/2010

“ Could I suggest 'Colder and More Snow' as the theme for the winter or is that it ................ Spring starts next week? ”

I think he could have something here. Certainty for the next couple of weeks at least, but hey; lets look forward to that Spring anyway!

Still no Winter forecast.

Posted 20/11/2010

Mid November and still no Winter forecast?

Well this year is proving far more difficult to predict than most. It may be that I should have just gone live back in September as normal, but hell, that is all in hind sight.

The end of this month is, by the looks of things, going to be much cooler than first thought, heralding the start of Winter proper.

Now with that in mind and taking into account the general trends through this year, we get to for- see something much colder than last year, by about 1.5 to 2 Deg C in fact; well that makes it CCCCold.

Only problem is! by looking further afield i.e. at the sun spot activity. we find this has increased significantly, from 74% free days in 2009 to 14% so far this year; all right, so the effect isn't immediate but it does have an effect.

Then what about nature? How has the old Mother been shaping up? All prety normal from what I've seen (unlike last year).

so where do we go with this? Any Ideas?

Well, at the moment I'd say similar to last year, hopefully a bit colder with less snow! Wow that's a bit different to September's prediction of a wet and warm Winter; but then, hey-ho, life's like that - full of little surprises.

Hope to do a fuller prediction in the days to come.

Its back and its better.

Posted 29/10/2010

Yep, the magic hands of the BT man has done their thing on our line and we are back, a bit faster as well (0.4 down 0.1 up).

Now best get on with that Winter Forecast which would appear to be packing quite a few surprises right now.

Internet playing up badly.

Posted 26/10/2010 updated 27/10/10

Pretty bad up here now with the internet. BT not helping at all. Fear we may have to suspend updates.

At last; as of this morning (27th) BT recognised that we do in fact have an intermittent, weather dependant fault on our network, which is probably going to be pretty difficult to find, but then they have given themselves 3 days ( that's working ones mind) to do it in.

Lets see what happens!!!!!

First SNOW of the Winter at Ballogie Weather.

Posted 20/10/2010

About an Inch of the white stuff laying this morning.

Mrs Ballogie Weather had new Snow Treads fitted yesterday! Didn't she do well!!!

The trials of a weather nut.

Posted 11/10/2010

Having got the station, software and computer working well I was stuck on getting Virtual VP to work!

Now; after three weeks; at last the solution has been found.....

For those thinking of doing the same...NEVER EVER, EVER TICK THE USB box in WL coms setup.

TICK SERIAL and all will be well.

There are reasons for this, which I won't go into here, but be assured, even if you have done the logical thing and ticked the box (oops), you can get back to normality and use other software other than that supplied by Davis.

Looking forward to experimenting! Starting with Weather Display and VP Live.

Breaking weather news.

Posted 10/10/2010

Not as good as we first thought!

Not quite sure what is happening at the moment, but this system that is due to hang on to us for the next week is causing concern.

At the worse, if it continues as it is, the NE will be warm and damp all week.

Not what we expected! Go West is my advise.

Anyone want to have a go at forecasting the Winter to come?

Posted 03/10/2010

It's time to have a stab at forecasting the Winter and I thought that after last year it would be nice to open it up to everone who follows this site.

I will be dedicating a separate page to it this year which I hope to publish by the 17th October.

So to get your forecast included, simply Email me at, admin @ 'the URL' and we can all keep an eye on each others. Your Email address will never be published, so pick an appropriate name!

I've totally revised my prediction since the one I published in March by-the-way!!!

Spoke too soon!

Posted 22/09/2010

Crashed again last night (23:30 ish), looks like the APRS upload again, this time, however Weatherlink needed to be re-installed before it would work.

Didn't have time to do much this morning, just disabled the APRS in the hope that it will keep going during the day.

Back at last Update.

Posted 20/09/2010

Having the old Dell back is great, even though it's only been a matter of ten days.

The first week was full of problems, I should have probably let the Dell update its self fully with XP service pack 2 but instead I installed Weatherlink 5.7.1 and immediately updated this to 5.8.3 this worked for a while, but became increasingly unstable as XP updated itself with service pack 2 in dribs and drabs, by Friday last, Weatherlink had become almost unusable, total crashes, error reading data from station, loop 2 not supported and .in.files on the server to mention but some.

In some ways, it is thankful that the weekend was wet and miserable and not 'reasonable' as expected. This then allowed me time to try and get to grips with the station proper.

First I had to get XP to fully update, this took a while but was OK. Take the 'Bull by the Horns' and try an update of Weatherlink to 5.9.2 was next, as I had never been able to get 5.9.0 to work I didn't hold out much hope, but this time it worked, the only problem I now had was that when the APRS string upload it would cause Weatherlink to fail totally and require a re-start (no good), disabling this got things working well, I could even use Weather Underground's live update. But what about poor old CWOP who were waiting for the APRS?

An evening of research indicated that this could be caused by the VP 2 having quite an old firmware version that was not compatible with the latest release of Weatherlink, so on Sunday I took the plunge and updated the firmware from 1.6 to 1.9 (scary I can tell you) and as if by magic it worked. I tested it with the APRS uploads and then turned on the live update and still it worked. In fact dare I say, better than ever......!

It's now official, Ballogie Weather has been through a whole night without dropping out or causing an error. Long may it last!

Now all I have to do is get Virtual VP to work! Anyone any ideas?

The slip into Winter that we call Autumn has started.

Posted 12/09/2010

Declining Temperatures, nights drawing in faster than ever, leaves changing colour, Squirrels busying themselves and the feeling of pending doom all adds up to what?

Autumn? yes! but also one of the best times of the year for Photographs. So stop the sulking and get out snapping. Bound to be some great light about.....

Back at last, thanks BRIAN

Posted 09/09/2010. Updated 18/09/2010.

The ancient Dell is back and running. The hard drive which came with a 3 year warranty was 6 years out of date, so a replacement has been found in one that is twice the size and only 4 years old. Well done and thank you Brian. All seems to be working well at the moment, long may it last.

Still my intention to re-vamp the site using the different software (not sure now which to go for) though so keep watching.

UPDATE: Been just over a week now and not a day has gone by where I haven't found that Weatherlink has crashed at least once. Managed to update to 5.9.2 late yesterday and that does seem to be more stable, I seem to have got rid of the error reading data from station messages and haven't seen a .in. file on the server for a while either, all that said however, it still crashed early this morning!

Unpredictable Week ahead

Posted 05/09/2010

Ok so things change! If you didn't enjoy last week you may have missed the best for a while.

Reasonable start to the week but then Tuesday looks to be wet,(very at times) and there after, quite changeable.The weekend? well I pity anyone doing D of E; it looks bad at the moment but we will be keeping an eye on things as we progress through the week.

Have fun all you campers

Summer at last

Posted 30/08/2010

Something we missed this year seems to have been summer! The next couple of weeks though, could remind us of how it should have been.

Late summer Barbecue weather

To keep you up to date

Posted 29/08/2010

Ballogie Weather is a personal weather station, set up in February 2008. It has had its ups and downs ever since, what with the unreliable broadband and the loss of the dedicated computer and all of its data to mention but two.

It is still my intention at some stage to re-vamp the web site using Cumulus software and run it from a linux operating system.

Until then, I have tried to retrieve as much data as possible and include it in the site as is. I have also decided to do away with the blog and use, instead this page to post anything of interest.

Clean; easy to use and maintain, was the thought!

Nothing here yet.

Posted 18/09/2010

Only just decided that it might be nice (or amusing) to keep a record.

Weather observations, 17/11/11

Yes the weekend looks good again, a bit overcast but quite dry with temperatures still reaching double figures.

Next week? Bit windier with some rain about at times.

Weather observations, 10/11/11

Weather observations, 04/11/11

Temperatures will be a bit cooler than of late, especialy at night, when we could even see some frosts, very little chance of rain and good clear periods.

Weather observations, 30/10/11

Temperatures way above that expected, good sunny spells and little rain.

Weather observations, 23/10/11

Typically unsettled, with mild (for the time of year) temperatures and moderate, mostly Southerly winds.

Weather observations, 02/10/11

Due to hit us around Wednesday afternoon/evening time.

Could be a bit windy. Nothing spectacular, as yet.

Weather observations, 30/09/11

Most of the rain will fall on Saturday one thinks at the moment.

Weather observations, 27/09/11

Get today out of the way and conditions become quite nice, with settled, warm weather from the south

Weather observations, 11/09/11

Weather observations, 09/09/11

Keep an eye on its progress with Weather Underground: click here

Weather observations, 01/09/11

Quite mild, rain and light winds.

Weather observations, 26/08/11

Way off track with the last.

Expect it to be quite miserable at the weekend at least

Dress for rain and cold nights, wind on Sunday as well.

Weather observations, 24/08/11

Not bad at all through into next week.

Weather observations, 01/08/11

nothing to get excited about.

Weather observations, 24/07/11

Could even feel like Summer for a change.

Weather observations, 20/07/11

That will make a change! looks quite general for the whole of Scotland as well.

Weather observations, 16/07/11

Ho, Hum....Think I may have mentioned a while ago that the summer would be wet and warm!

Weather observations, 06/07/11

Back to being unsettled again with plenty of rain today, to start things off.

Not quite as bad the rest of the week and into the weekend, showers being the key word here.

Looks like we will have to wait for next week before any decent weather comes our way though, and even then I don't think it wil last.

Hows that for doom and gloom?

Weather observations, 29/06/11

Looks like we will have a good start to the holidays here, with some fine, settled weather reaching us from Friday well in to next week.

long may it continue, however I doubt that it will!!

Weather observations, 25/06/11

Weather observations, 19/06/11

Weather observations, 17/06/11

Friday night into Saturday will be wet and a little wild at times.

Sunday however will see much better weather.

next week will be similar to this - sunshine and showers -

Weather observations, 13/06/11

Wet Monday expect up to 50mm rain today.

Not bad Tuesday and Wednesday then worsening toward the weekend.

Weather observations, 10/06/11

The weekend looks to be quite good with a mix of sunshine and showers but I would say more sun than rain.

Have a good one whatever you do.

Weather observations, 06/06/11

Weather observations, 01/06/11

The change is on its way, but not for long, Thursday and Friday should see temperatures rise to 22 and 24 Deg C with plenty of sunshine and only light winds to go with it.

The weekend, however will see a return to cooler, cloudier and windier conditions.

Possible FROST on Saturday night, especially in sheltered spots.

Weather observations, 29/05/11

About the same for the start of the week.

From Wednesday though things start to look interesting, with some good weather coming our way right up to and may be through the weekend.

Lucky Silver

Weather observations, 27/05/11

A few showers, a few sunny spells, mid range temperatures and light winds.

Nothing special then!

Weather observations, 23/05/11

Starting the week well with loads of rain and high winds on Monday. Not so interesting for the rest.

Weather observations, 20/05/11

Could really do anything, predominantly windy for sure, with a chance of showers, not that cold either.

If I don't say thunder storms then we will get them.....It's possible, Sunday!

Weather observations, 15/05/11

A week of sunshine and showers, some of which will be quite heavy.

We missed the storms of last week so keep an eye open around Thursday of this.

Weather observations, 05/05/11

Much needed rain is on its way, not a lot to start with but it will be overcast and still warm, so we could be looking forward to some good thunder storms next week.

Bring it on. Look out around the middle of the week, could be very interesting!

Weather observations, 01/05/11

Dry as well, most fire warnings are out for the local area.

So please be careful!

Weather observations, 20/04/11

Yes thats right. The fine weather is set to continue through the rest of the week and into the weekend.

Get out and enjoy!

Weather observations, 25/03/11

With the snow all but gone from low levels we herald a spell of slightly damp weather over the next few days with at the very least more over cast days and cooler.

Weather observations, 19/03/11

Ready for a cold finish to March

Weather observations, 12/03/11

Most of the day has seen snow, even at these levels a good 6 inches in places, average about 4, but still falling.

With the probability of cooler temperatures over night it will stay till Sunday for sure.

Tomorrow, then could see even more, with Northerly winds, drifting is possible.

Weather observations, 11/03/11

The precipitation due over the weekend has got a good chance of falling as snow particularly over high ground.

With some moderate northerly winds on Sunday.

Back then, to better weather next week.

Weather observations, 06/03/11

More high pressure and another very pleasant week ahead.

In fact most of March is looking quite good.

Weather observations, 27/02/11

High pressure keeping thins quite spring like this week. All in all very pleasant.

Weather observations, 13/02/11

Keeping it simple. It will be a bit colder than last, with the odd shower her and there, some of which will be of snow.

Weather observations, 06/02/11

The Wintry weather promised for this week has all but disappeared, leaving us with somewhat boring settled conditions for much of the time

Weather observations, 01/02/11

The gorgeous settled weather we have been enjoying looks set to end soon, with spells of rain sleet or even snow probable over the next few days. Windy as well!

The following week looks even more interesting - Wintry, cold with more snow.

Just right for those on Half Term holiday......

Weather observations, 19/01/11

it looks like we are in for a good spell of settled weather for a while; so at the very least, get out and enjoy.

Weather observations, 10/01/11

Haven't seen wet, warm and windy conditions for a while so this week will be a bit of a change.

Weather observations, 03/01/11

Looks like the week is going to be typically Winter with the weather creeping in again from the North.

Temperatures look set to hover around the zero to low plus mark. With a good possibility that any precipitation will fall as snow or ice.

Just what we need! Shouldn't be to bad though.

Weather observations, 26/12/10

Warmer for a while, any snow fall will be isolated to the far West and we will be having the thaw that has now set it's pace.

The cold will return though. some time soon. New year I would think.

Weather observations, 19/12/10

I'm afraid to say that there doesn't seem to be much change for the week to come.

The snow is set to continue into the week; along with very (and I mean very) wintry temperatures.

Wrap up warm, wear the sensible boots, and get out and about and enjoy!

Weather observations, 15/12/10

No, the return to cold weather has not gone, but the threat of huge snow falls may have. At least for this area of Scotland.

It's very marginal but the worst of the snow due over the next few days could stay North and West of us, but this is a fine line to call.

Whatever, temperatures will be well down into the minus zone, and winds will be Northerly.

Weather observations, 09/12/10

The thaw looks set to continue through the weekend, causing it's own sort of havoc but after that; what? and when?

Return to a northern prominence is the theme at the moment: Colder of course but this could (and probably will) give us some more snow!

Now that's just what we wanted to hear!

Weather observations, 04/12/10

Next week looks like it will be a continuation of the weekend with temperatures between -2 and 2 a bit more wind and somewhat unsettled.

Wetter and warmer toward next weekend.

Typically Winter.

Weather observations, 01/12/10

First day of Winter and it looks like the snow is going to give us a break for a while.

After this cold spell the weekend will be quite tropical with temperatures edging into the plus zone, however this will be short lived with a return to good low minus figures for next week.

Weather observations, 28/11/10

In case you were ever in any doubt, this weather is set to continue well into the month of December.

Weather observations, 19/11/10

After a bit of an unsettled weekend the northerlies return giving us much cooler weather for at least the week to come.

In fact, it looks likely to continue well into the following week as well.

Weather observations, 15/11/10

This cold spell is about to come to an end for a while.

With another front approaching us from the south west, expect wet warm and some-what windy weather to be par for the course after Tuesday.

Weather observations, 06/11/10

After a good weekend some areas could be in for quite a shock.

However most of the bad weather on its way for late Sunday through Monday will just miss this part of Scotland.

It's after this (Tuesday onward) that things start to cool down considerably.

With little wind and good fine spells as well

Weather observations, 29/10/10

Warm for the time of year really, but only a few good fine spells in evidence this week.

Quite a bit of rain about mostly showers, however some could be quite nasty.

Moderate to strong Westerly winds for most of the week till things break at the weekend (for the better).

Summary:

Quick Weather observations, 27/10/10

Unusually warm for a while (about a week).

Unfortunately this could bring more strong Southerly winds to disrupt our internet.

Weather observations, suspended.

Weather observations, 21/10/10

Saturday stay in or go shopping, not nice at all.

Sunday: best day by far.

Weather observations, 15/10/10

Unsettled weather for the start of the week whilst it tries to sort itself out.

Could be quite a bit of rain about as well.

Temperatures on the average side

Things start to get interesting toward the end of the week and into the weekend when we will see predominance from the North and North West which will make things a lot cooler.

Weather observations, 14/10/10

The change is on its way.

Thankfully we should be getting rid of this dampness as well.

Best day? Sunday.

Weather observations, 08/10/10

The fine wheather of the weekend will spill over well into the week.

Light Northerly winds will keep the temperatures down to around the double figure mark during the day and low singles at night.

Hardly a bad thing this, as there will be plenty of sun about to make it feel a lot warmer.

On Friday we could start to see a change, so make the most1

Weather observations, 06/10/10

South East winds, temperatures up to about 14 and good sunny spells.

What more could you want.

Good start to the holiday and more to come.

Weather observations, 02/10/10

May as well just repeat last week's forecast.

Average Temperatures, Southerly winds, wet on Wednesday.

Change towards the end of the week! Wind change to the East and a splash of rain before the weekend.

Oh, just like last week!!!!

Weather observations, 29/09/10

The outlook for the weekend looks quite good, with southerly winds bringing warm air.

We could be treated to some prolonged sunny periods as well.

Just as well, next week is looking grim!!!

Weather observations, 24/09/10

The cold Northerly winds of the weekend will disappear late on Sunday to be replaced with East to Southeast ones through to the middle of the week when a further wind shift to the South or South West looks likely.

I've said changeable because I think it will be one of those weeks that could see a bit of everything.

The wettest period does look likely to be mid week.

Weather observations, 21/09/10

It now appears that there is a whole heap of rain due to hit us from the west over the next couple of days with, some quite heavy showers, so look out!

Should all be in the past by Friday.

Weather observations, 20/09/10

Lets do a Friday, Saturday, Sunday forecast for all those lucky people with an 'in service day', or even those doing a D of E Silver Expedition!

Friday: Light Northerly winds some sunny spells. Temperatures: max 11 Min 5 or 6 towards the night.

Saturday: More light N winds, bit of cloud about top temperatures about 10, down to 3 or 4 at night. Could be a frost.

Sunday: Cool start with little wind turning warmer toward the end of day. Top temperature about 12 or 13.

D of E expeditions; pack the winter weight bag, plenty of food and enjoy. Good luck.

Weather observations, 18/09/10

Monday into Tuesday will see what little wind there is, shift to the South East bringing much warmer air to the area along with some good sunny spells.

This trend will persist through most of the week.

Towards the weekend things start to look much less happy, at the moment opinion is firmly divided as to what will happen so we will be following this with interest.

Weather observations, 15/09/10

Saturday could be quite wet in some areas and will see the wind change to a northerly.

Overnight you could even experience a frost in some places.

Sunday will see the most sun with very little wind.

Night time temperatures may fall to just above freezing.

D of E expeditions; pack the winter weight bag, plenty of food and enjoy. Good luck.

Snow on the hills?

Yes I'd say a good chance!