To celebrate the release of Shetland: Your Essential Travel Guide, I am recording a few snippets from the book.

This week, we are looking at one of the more in depths topics within the book and the chapter; Weather.

Climate and the weather are something that most visitors are keen to understand before they arrive and, locally, is a topic that opens most conversations. The most common questions are: how hot – or cold – does it get, is there much snow and how cold is the sea? Visitors always ask what they should pack, and the answer is: everything. Expect four seasons in one day, bitter wind-chills that make jaws rattle, and unexpected rain showers on otherwise clear days.

Despite sitting on the same latitude as St Petersburg, Helsinki, and the Alaskan city of Anchorage, Shetland doesn’t experience the same extremes of temperature. Shetland is about 9℃ milder than St Petersburg in winter and experiences very little prolonged snowfall. Our temperate, mild winters are thanks to the warming effects of the North Atlantic Drift, a sea current that passes through the islands, cutting short otherwise prolonged frosts.

If you are interested in buying a copy, you can order here: https://shetlandwooladventures.com/product/shetland-your-essential-travel-guide/