March Blizzard

If you want to be pedantic then yes, you're right, it still doesn't make my answer any less valid for the question asked. Besides, they are slightly closer than Alberta and SE Asia.

I noticed that some places have had remarkably mild overnight mins, Magilligan in Northern Ireland didn't drop to below about 14C the other night (I think...). Coastal areas seem to be retaining the heat far more than inland locations.

Even the Northern Isles are freakishly warm; 18.1C at 3pm in Kirkwall in the Orkneys, surely a March record for there? Even more impressive when you consider that March is just as cold as the three winter months there on average.

This current spell can't be far off for me, diurnal ranges close to/at 20C. Just goes to show that March is almost certainly the most "Continental" month of the year, you can scrape ice off your car windscreen early in the morning and sunbathe in the afternoon. I think the highest temperature variation in a day that I have personally experienced is about 25C+ in Cyprus; under 10C in the morning up in the Troodos mountains to about 35C in the afternoon in Nicocia.

Aboyne at 22.8C at 2pm. Looking like A record warm March temperature being broke for Scotland on the 3rd consecutive day now.

The highland area does seem the most susceptible to significant rises and falls in temperature in a short space of time. The temps rise like a balloon and drop like a stone at sunrise and sunset respectively. It must be interesting to live in the Canadian Prairie provinces or the upper American Midwest, especially when them Chinooks roll in in winter, -20C to +20C in no time!

I'm actually starting to come around to be honest, there's nothing boring about snow and a potential record warm temperature being recorded on the same day. The massive temperature variations across the country is the only thing keeping me interested. Saying that, I would love to see an unsettled and cool April.

Aboyne now at a sizzling 21.4C, that Scottish record looks very vulnerable. Even the Icebox of the UK, Altnaharra, is at 20.0C. Gravesend is making Altnaharra seem tropical, never thought i'd say that!

Does anyone happen to know what the highest temperature rise in the space of an hour is, for the UK? I doubt it's close to any record but Aboyne went from 1.0C at 8am to 10.0C at 9am, a rise of 9.0C in just an hour seems pretty impressive to me! Also, in what conditions and at what time of year are big temperature rises most likely to occur, on average?

Looks like Aboyne is well on course to break the Scottish record high for March; 22.2C according to an article in the Guardian. Was 20.8C at 1pm. Again, huge differences across the country temperature wise, some 15C+ between the warmest and coolest.

Agreed. Very benign weather in March doesn't sit well with me. No wind, little rain, mild/warm maxes and mild/cool mins - yawn. If the high pressure left i honestly wouldn't want to see it again until about mid May! And this is coming from someone who works outdoors.

Very chilly here today and fairly misty. Nearby Woodford hasn't even hit 5C all day! In fact, it feels colder than any day we had in December or January! I've noticed there's a huge disparity in temperatures across England today, Woodford and Leek haven't even cracked 5C yet much of the East/South east are into the high teens.

Looks like much of the NW, or the Manchester area at least, has missed out on all of this sunshine today (as usual :winky: ) Overall a cloudy day here with the sun only showing it's face every now and then. Not particularly warm either, I'd hazard a guess at only about 10-12C all day...

Yes, perhaps we should stop talking about past winter cold spells in the spring 2012 thread...

Agreed. Remember that the western stations would have skewed the figures for the early Feb Cet, the cold was very localised to the SE and east. In that regard i think the early Feb cold is somewhat underrated - it was every bit as cold in the east and south east in early Feb 2012 as it was nationwide in Dec 2010. I suppose what im getting at is each location was subject to similar levels of cold when they recorded their anomalous low temperatures. Maybe the lack of significant or sustained snowcover in Feb 2012 prevented the temperatures from falling lower overnight. Anyway, you would think an east coast location in a severe cold spell in Feb would be colder than a west coast location in a similarly cold spell in Decemeber. Just shows how remarkable that Crosby reading was. Such are the quirks of the British climate.

Good points, Aaron. The Crosby reading was a huge anomaly, even in similarly cold spells to Dec 10 it didn't go anywhere near as cold. However, isn't the Holbeach reading also quite unusual? I would argue that Dec 2010 wasn't much colder than early Feb 2012. Dec 2010 ended up -0.8C on the CET, didn't it? If i recall the CET for Feb 2012 didn't go above freezing until the 13th/14th... Shap, Woodford, Spadeadam, Pershore, Shawbury etc were equally and consistently as cold as the stations you mentioned in both Jan and Dec 2010.

I think that overall there is little difference between the NW and NE in terms of annual temperatures, the NE being slightly cooler over the course of the year. However, thanks to the Pennines the NW is significantly wetter, more cloudy and probably slightly windier too. If you like the NW is somewhat of a Wales/Scotland Hybrid, nicely bridging the differences between the climates of the two countries. If you look at a map that shows temperatures by colour in the summer months you can often see the entire NW bathed in a shade of green all the way down to southern Cheshire, while on the other side of the pennines yellows and oranages stretch as far north as Durham. Very warm summer temperatures are very rare in much of Lancs and Cumbira.

A very average winter in the Manchester area to be honest. I think many people have allowed the cold of recent winters to cloud their judgement of what should be expected of a British winter ie Mild and wet - and that is exactly how it's been here. December - Dull and actually quite wet, 174mm recorded at Woodford just a few miles away from me. Also very blustery and windy. Only 2-3 instances of snow falling and only 5mm or so of short lived lying wet snow on one occasion in mid month. Maxima and minima temperatures not too far apart, distinct lack of sharp frosts. January - see December although slightly less windy, dull and not as wet. February - First half had low maxima and low minima, but not exceptionally so. Not as dull as either December or January nor anywhere near as wet, but not seriously dry either. What has got me is the lack of a really cold night all winter. I think the lowest all winter was only about -6C or so, if that. A far cry from the -17C of Jan 2010 and -15C of Dec 2010. All things considered it was as average as you could expect for a winter in this neck of the woods.

20C - April 3rd 25C - April 23rd 30C - June 27th 35C - August 6th (If at all...)

"North west England is not as cold (exceptions such as frost hollows of course) or as snowy as north east England (including Yorkshire in this), is wetter and often cloudier and not as prone to extreme heat or thunderstorms ON AVERAGE I might add.. fog is more common here but the east coast is still as sunny as London and other South-eastern areas." Does anyone else not find it somewhat unusual that in recent winter cold the west has seemingly been colder than the east? In December 2010 Crosby (NW coast) recorded a temperature of -17.6C while in early Feb this year Holbeach (East Coast) only managed -15.6C. Bear in mind the seas off coastal Lincolnshire/Norfolk are the coldest in the UK and the seas are colder in Feb than they are in December. Also, it seemed a waste of time to check the East Midlands or North East on the Met office latest observations website during cold spells when the NW and west Midlands stations were consistantly colder. Yorkshire was more hit and miss. I was actually glad for cold weather fans in the east when they got their share in early Feb. In theory the east should be colder in winter as it borders a colder sea and is closer to the continent, but in practice it doesn't always ring true. I think we in the Manchester area get the best of both worlds, it's very much in the maritime influence like the rest of the NW but is far inland and south-east enough to experience winter cold and summer heat more commonly associated with eastern/central locations. On topic, I'm finding this monotomous weather extremely boring. I prefer seasonal weather and would rather see mild/warm and calm days in May, not March. I like my Marches to be blustery and chilly, snow one day then sun the other, mild to warm maxima and cool to low minima. The high pressue can't go soon enough as far as im concerned!

You're probably right. I was probably being a little paranoid...

It's a toss up. In 2007 i would have been certain the warm record would go first, but after the severe spells in each winter since then I'm not so sure. It seems like since August 2003 intense and prolonged summer heat is becoming more uncommon while deep winter cold is becoming more common. If the cold record was equalled in the warm 90's it can certainly be beaten at any time given the right setup. However, the same can just as easily be said about the warm record. It seems sensible to assume that in a warming world the heat record will be broken first but it's never as simplistic as that.

Does anyone know why the Woodford station hasn't been operating for the last three days? Is it undergoing maintenance perhaps? I ask because i was wondering if the Met Office were going to abandon it after the B.A.E site was sold to new owners, maybe they already have? I hope not, it's the closest one to my house!

There seems to have been a very marked NW/SE split in terms of rainfall this winter. For me at least, the overall impression i get from this winter is that it has been quite wet. The closest Met Office station to me (Woodford) recorded 174.6mm in Dec 2011 and 95mm in Jan 2012. Feb has been a bit of a mixed bag, dry(ish) first 10-12 days but quite a bit of rain in the last week or so. Capel Curig recorded a massive 468.8mm in Dec 2011 yet Loftus only managed 31.4mm and Holbeach 32.8mm. I would selfishly love to see cold and dry weather develop in March but it would be far more beneficial for the Atlantic to dominate, especially for those in the south/east.

Looks perfect! Do you know where that actually is, Aaron?