Monday jottings

Very cold day by recent standards - only 3C / 37F at the moment. Snow is possible in mainland Scotland. Tonight a hard frost is expected on the same mainland, down to -6C. I'm anticipating 0C / 32F up here. The sea moderates our weather, although deep falls of snow have been known to happen. People are now looking back to the winter of 1947, which was the hardest on record. This apparently also began unremarkable, only to show its teeth in February.

On the hurricane front, things are livening up. Dora is beginning to fade, losing its hurricane status this morning with winds dropping below the 72mph threshold. Attention now switches to northern Australia, which has two tropical lows making noises. One is in the Gulf of Carpentaria, where it has been raining heavily and lots of wind. Atmospheric conditions are changing, making it more likely that this system will turn into a low-grade tropical cyclone - a category 1 hurricane looks probable.

This is the latest warning from the Bureau of Meteorology:
A CYCLONE WATCH continues for coastal and island communities from Port Roper in the Northern Territory to Kowanyama in Queensland, including Borroloola and Mornington Island.

At 3:30 pm CST [4:00 pm EST] a TROPICAL LOW was centred near the Gulf of Carpentaria coast, about 115 kilometres east northeast of Borroloola and 230 kilometres west northwest of Mornington Island moving east northeast at 2 kilometres per hour. The low is expected to remain near the coast tonight before moving east into the southeastern Gulf of Carpentaria on Tuesday.

GALES are not expected in coastal areas within the next 24 hours, however gales could develop on Tuesday night if the low develops into a tropical cyclone.

HEAVY RAIN is expected to cause significant stream rises across the Top End, increasing to widespread flooding in the Roper-McArthur and northern Barkly Districts.

Another system has developed 55 miles east of Cairns, which may blow up into something as well, which may give some large waves.