drfeelgood

3.3C for me if it's not too late!

Thanks for the info/stats and those amazing photos! It's easy to forget that it can get very cold indeed in parts of northern and central Spain. What is even more amazing is that cities as far south as Albacete have recorded -24C. That's pretty spectacular considering this city isn't too far from the Costas....According to this article, Albacete holds the record lowest temperature of any provincial capital in Spain (obviously excluding small towns and villages in the tables you quoted....): http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albacete

These figures show what an extraordinary month we've all just lived through! Like many others, I feel really luck to have experienced it, especially as just 3 years ago, all this would have been unthinkable. ....And a sub 9C month for the first time since the '80s!

It looks like the warm period since 1988 has ended and we may be entering a colder phase - so I will go for another cold year: 8.8C for me!

A cold first and final week, milder mid-month, heralding a cold(er) February. I'll go for 1.6C

Now THAT'S what I call a blizzard! Unlike the 3/4 inches that shut down Heathrow for a week.

They are talking about the UK national record which only started in 1910, as opposed to the CET records which do, in fact, go back to the 17th century. I suppose the Met Office would rather use the national record instead of the CET to avoid accusations of being too England-centric. Another advantage of focusing on the UK record is that whether or not this December's CET beats 1890 becomes irrelevant. In other words, as far as the UK record (since 1910) is concerned this IS the coldest December on record. It is also much more satisfying for our sensationalist media to be able to say "coldest December on record" without having to add "since 1890.."

It might be from the Met Office's rooftop station (which unsurprisingly always records higher minima). I'm not sure though so if someone could confirm the station, would be great. 2am update: Northolt continues its descent, albeit at a slower pace....now -12.2 And even St James's Park in central London is now down to -5.2. That means all London stations are now below minus 5. That's quite a feat in December, considering that in most recent winters minima in central London struggle to fall even below minus 2.

Thanks for that. Which station was that? Heathrow? Great, so Jan '87 is well and truly beaten as far as London is concerned! What an exciting December we're having!

Even London is dropping away like a stone - Northolt in north-west London is now down to -11.9C at 1am. Temperatures at other sites in and around London as of 1am: Gatwick: -11.0 Kew Gardens: -8.2 Kenley: -8.1 Heathrow: -7.3 Olympic Park South: -5.7 Hampstead: -5.0 London City Airport: -4.0 St James's Park: -3.9 If Northolt carries on in this vein, it could well rival, if not beat, some of the low minima last recorded within Greater London in Jan 1987 - can anyone confirm this? Mr Data?

Super Typhoon Durian dumped 466mm (18.3inches)of rain on the Philippines!!! At its peak the typhoon had gusts of 165mph. According to more recent reports the death toll from Super Typhoon is now well over 1,000. 543 in the Philippines +740 missing/presumed dead and an additional 59 in Vietnam. The typhoon is now heading for Thailand, which is highly unusual at this time of the year. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/a...1&cset=true http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6212580.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6201176.stm video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_ne...storyid=6198220 pics: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16003778/displ.../framenumber/1/

I think I'll go with 17.2

Here comes the "Hottest Month on Record" confirmation from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5233408.stm Interestingly, the METO figure of 17.8C they are quoting appears to be the overall UK average rather than the CET. I'm wondering if this is because the UK average gives a much clearer picture that a record has been well and truly broken, with July 1983 quite far behind at 17.3C. As many of you have pointed out this is not QUITE the case with the CET record.... In fact, there is no mention of the CET whatsoever in the METO's press release...iffy records and close calls are hardly newsworthy are they? B) Also of note is how UK-wise, 2003 was the equal-hottest summer with 1976, at least according to this BBC report. Now as far as I'm aware, 1976 is still the hottest according to the CET figures. Is this another case of the media, in conjunction with the Meto, manipulating "records"? Just wondering....

I'll go for a cool June at 13.8 C.

Despite the above average April, I think this spring will be cool overall. So I'm going for 10.7 C

Write to them Optimus and ask them to use a calculator if they can't count !! Go on!

That's very interesting, ACB. So basically, in terms of sunshine distribution, it has been "displaced" from early to late summer. Temperature-wise, a similar displacement can also be seen, with August being almost as warm as July. In fact, if we only take into account the last 10 years, August is now probably the warmest month.

I'm not surprised by these stats as the 1960s was generally a very cool decade (also in a non-meteorological sense ) . Note that no year in the 60s had a CET above 10C - it was almost as if the climate temporarily regressed back to the Little Ice Age. All seasons were distinctly cooler. However, apart from 62-63, no other winters were massively below normal. I forgot to add that 1960s summers were particularly cool. 1969 was the warmest. If we had that kind of summer this year, it would be our coolest since 1993.

It looks like the mild or warm spell you described at the end resulted in a cold but unspectacular CET of 7.2. In fact, April 2001 was nearly as cold. It really shows CET averages can really mask cold and warm spells.

Yes, that's right. Philip Eden's CET is on generally around 0.02 higher than Hadley's. The biggest disparity I've noted so far is from Feb 1986 (our last subzero month!!) , which was -1.1 according to Hadley but "only" -0.7 according to Philip. I'm sure others will find more. Curiously, Phil already has March 06 as 4.91.

Were it not for this mild final week, this March could easily have been the coldest since 1970. It now looks like it will only be the coldest since 1996...

To continue with the cold theme, I'll go for 6.4 :blush:

Looks like my prediction is way too low now.... damn I hate these mild spells..after all the hard work the cold weather has put it this month, all it takes is five days of mild to kill of any chance of beating 1987

If the March CET ends up at 4.9 it will only be the coldest since 1996 and if it turns out to be 5.2 it will be only as cold as 2001 - boring! boring!!! Sums up our "modern climate". Why can't this mild spell wait one more week!? It has waited long enough...it could have held on for a few more days!