Dalwhinnie (Schottland)

Dalwhinnie "Meeting Place" is a small village in the Scottish Highlands.LocationDalwhinnie sits at an altitude of 351 m. It is one of the coldest villages in the UK, having an average annual temperature of 6.6oC, making it suitable for winter walking and mountaineering. It is north of Drumochter, just off the A9 road from Perth to Inverness and has been bypassed since 1975. It is about 2 to 2½ hours drive from both Edinburgh and Glasgow, 25 miles from Aviemore, 13 from Newtonmore and 17 from Kingussie.Dalwhinnie railway station lies on the Highland Main Line from Perth to Inverness.ClimateDalwhinnie experiences a borderline subarctic climate (Dfc), with frequently overcast skies, cool temperatures and rainfall throughout the year. Sunshine here averages only 1032 hours, which is one of the lowest in the United Kingdom. Dalwhinnie holds the UK low temperature records for the months of June, September and October. In addition it also holds Scotland's record for the lowest April daytime maximum temperature of -1.0C in 1975, and the record lowest October temperature for Scotland of -11.7°C. For the 1951-1980 observation period it averaged a temperature of 6.3C compared to Braemar's 6.4C, making Dalwhinnie one of the coldest inhabited places in the British Isles. In fact, according to the 1981-2010 observation period Dalwhinnie is the coldest place in the UK below 500 metres above sea level, with a mean temperature of 6.6C, lower than its closest rivals Leadhills and Braemar which both have mean temperatures of 6.8C for this period. The lowest temperatures in recent years have been -15.8C in January 2010 and -16.1C during December 2010. Winter snowfall can be heavy, with accumulations often exceeding 30 cm.