Scottish skies so dark we weren’t able to actually see darkness - Vladimir McTavish

The fact that we have had a couple of days of sunshine this week has made me realise just how bad the rest of spring has been. Even by Scottish standards, the weather this April has been utterly grim. Last weekend I drove through rain and sleet to Inverness, drove back in drizzle and hail then set off for Irvine in gale-force winds.

People look toward the sky at the Edge at Hudson Yards observation deck ahead of the total solar eclipse in New York City. While people overseas were losing their minds over the sun blacking out, all of Scotland was praying for the sun to actually shine in the first place, says Vladimir McTavish. (Picture: Charly Triballeau/Getty Images)

Dundee Football Club are continually having to postpone home games because their pitch is waterlogged. They managed to get it dried out by Wednesday morning just in time for another deluge, turning it back into a pond and forcing the referee to call off that evening’s game. I’m sure I’m not the only person in the country who has not been able to use their lawnmower in 2024. Even when we do get a dry sunny day, the grass is still absolutely sodden underfoot.

While we don’t expect to be sunbathing in the park or swimming off Portobello beach at this time of year, the recent dull wet weather had been more depressing than normal. And at the start of the week we received official confirmation of that fact.

While most of the rest of Western World was able to witness Monday’s total solar eclipse, it was impossible to see it in Scotland due to heavy cloud. In other words, our skies were so dark that we weren’t able to actually see darkness.

It really is quite depressing to think that while people overseas were losing their minds over the sun blacking out, all of Scotland was praying for the sun to actually shine in the first place.

In the United States, it was a totally different story. Huge parts of the country were plunged into darkness. People held parties out of doors, thousands stared in awe as the sun disappeared and the birds stopped singing. In Arkansas 350 couples took part in a mass wedding in a stadium. It seems that Americans couldn’t get enough darkness. It was as if they’d never seen night-time before.

Hopefully, their passion for the dark will have worn off by November’s presidential election. The last thing we need is another Trump victory. That would plunge the entire Western World into darkness for the next four years.