This year there will have been the unusual combination of a winter with
a long predominantly cold spell (January 21 to March 23, or
thereabouts) and a summer with a long predominantly warm/hot spell
(June 2 to July 28). IMX this is a very unusual combinations - the
other summers with long hot spells such as 1989, 1990, 1994 and 1995
all followed very mild winters.

This could be evaluated in a measurement of "extremity" of a calendar
year: the mean maximum of the hottest month (probably July this year)
and the mean maximum of the coldest month (February this year). In
parts of the southeast, this must be exceeding 20C: IIRC the February
mean max were around 6C whereas this month they probably exceed 26C -
particularly as even the seemingly very ordinary airmass yesterday
maintained higher-than-average maximum temperatures.

How then will this year shape up in most extreme years by this measure?
With many reports of a good summer in 1947, combined with the
well-known cold winter, that must easily be the most extreme year on
record - but do any others beat this year? And how about the other
extreme, the drabbest, most equable year on record? Any years with very
mild winters and very bad summers with less than 10C difference between
maximum temps in the coldest and warmest months?

Nick