***With temperature records for Coventry dating back to 1892, this has been the warmest spring on record in Coventry (10.8ºC), eclipsing the previous high of 10.4C in both 1992 and 2007.***

So read the temperature headlines for Spring just two years ago in Coventry..

Now just two years later, we find that Spring 2013 has been the coldest in Coventry since 1967, with only 4 Spring seasons colder than this year since 1895 (1962, 1941, 1951, 1967).

Bizarre!

Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry UK
www.bablakeweather.co.uk

On May 31, 2:51*pm, Steve Jackson wrote:
***With temperature records for Coventry dating back to 1892, this has been the warmest spring on record in Coventry (10.8ºC), eclipsing the previous high of 10.4C in both 1992 and 2007.***

So read the temperature headlines for Spring just two years ago in Coventry.

Now just two years later, we find that Spring 2013 has been the coldest in Coventry since 1967, with only 4 Spring seasons colder than this year since 1895 (1962, 1941, 1951, 1967).

Bizarre!

Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry UKwww.bablakeweather.co.uk

I am surprised, Steve, that you are have Spring 1967 as a cold season
in Coventry. The Spring CET for that year was near average, and
looking at other years there have been several colder ones since, with
1968, 1975, 1979, 1984 being some of them.

Dick Lovett

Thanks for your comment Dick - as a respected member of uk.sci.weather, I have spent some time looking back just in case there has been s statistical error, which is always possible considering the vagaries of data enties into Excel.

However I have checked our records, and spring 1967 did it seems have an average of 6.9C in Coventry compared to 7.0C in 2013.

I even went back to 1967 files for individual months and found

1967 March ave 4.5C 2013 2.5C
1967 April ave 7.0C 2013 7.7C
1967 May ave 9.1C 2013 10.9C

Of the other springs that you mention

1968 = 7.6C
1975 = 7.6C
1979 = 7.8C
1984 = 7.7C

The coldest Springs in our records are

1962 = 6.6C
1941 = 6.7C
1951 & 1967 = 6.9C
2013 = 7.0C
1969 = 7.1C

Not sure that I can explain any unexpected variations with the CET records comparison.

best wishes

Steve J

On May 31, 6:35*pm, Steve Jackson wrote:
Thanks for your comment Dick - as a respected member of uk.sci.weather, I have spent some time looking back just in case there has been s statistical error, which is always possible considering the vagaries of data enties into Excel.

However I have checked our records, and spring 1967 did it seems have an average of 6.9C in Coventry compared to 7.0C in 2013.

I even went back to 1967 files for individual months and found

1967 March ave *4.5C *2013 2.5C
1967 April ave *7.0C *2013 7.7C
1967 May ave * *9.1C *2013 10.9C

Of the other springs that you mention

1968 = 7.6C
1975 = 7.6C
1979 = 7.8C
1984 = 7.7C

The coldest Springs in our records are

1962 * * * *= 6.6C
1941 * * * *= 6.7C
1951 & 1967 = 6.9C
2013 * * * *= 7.0C
1969 * * * *= 7.1C

Not sure that I can explain any unexpected variations with the CET records comparison.

best wishes

Steve J

Looking at the figures you give for 1967, Steve, that March mean of
only 4.5C looks suspiciously low when viewed alongside the equivalent
7.0C from the CET.
This particular March was a warm one in central England with an
anomaly of +1.1C wrt the 1931-60 reference period, so the question
arises as to how Coventry could have a managed an apparently much
colder March than normal; by my estimate of Bablake figures about 1.5C
below normal. The Lamb daily catalogue certainly doesn't suggest a
cold month, with no easterlies, and only 4 northerly days. The most
likely explanation is the wrong figure has somehow got into the
records
I am genuinely not looking for extra work for you, but do think it
would be worth checking it out if you still have access to the daily
figures for that month.


Regards
Dick Lovett

Eagle eyed Dick surmised,

"Looking at the figures you give for 1967, Steve, that March mean of only 4.5C looks suspiciously low when viewed alongside the equivalent 7.0C from the CET."

There was indeed an error, with the actual monthly mean 6.0C - the old city records were taken in Fahrenheit in 1967, and it looks as if there was an error in our conversion to Celsius.

I guess I will have to check out all these pre 1977 records when I retire, there are probably more errors in their somewhere.

So in essence, Spring 2013 was the coldest in Coventry since 1962, not 1967.

best wishes and thanks

Steve J