Scott W wrote:

Excuse my ignorance and weakness of having looked at "The Weather
Outlook" but has anyone heard of the following fact that I read on
TWO...

"Although the days are have now been lengthening for a while, the
weather tends to lag behind by about one month, meaning that on average
the coldest winter in the UK can be expected during the second half of
January and the first half of February."

There is often a cold spell around February-ish for about two weeks
which has nothing I know of to do with the lag that gives us cold
weather at that time of year and that warmer weather spell in August.

One thing that is true is that February marks the Chinese new year,
probably for the same reason it is the middle of the British
agricultural winter. Cattle have consumed half the hay they are going
to by then since they will be in barns until May (the month before hay
is harvested once more.)

So far the reason for the lag has not yet been explained. It can't be
due to inversions as such cold weather in winter is due to sunny days
and cloudless nights.

There are lots of inexplicable things such as the above that have been
noted in weatherlore and ignored since we all evolved into the dumbies
that the BBC think we are.