"John Hall" wrote in message
...

I think for once Scotland had a less severe winter than England in
1962-3.

There is a good piece in today's Telegraph putting the current winter in
perspective. He rather downplays it, though he's a Scot:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/we...ed-winter.html
--
John Hall

Having just seen a news report on BBC Scotland from the Borders, where a
widespread 18 -24 inches has fallen in the last 24 hours and transport has
all but ceased I'm sure he wouldn't have been downplaying it as he was
eating breakfast this morning. I was going to say whilst he was reading his
article at breakfast, but I don't think he'll have a paper delivered for a
few days, perhaps a week. I would also be worried if I were one of his hens
lol.
It was a good article, but with the benefit of hindsight he may well have
already changed his tune, particularly if he's one of the thousands of
houses in the borders currently without power.
We may have 8 weeks of winter yet to come, but this rivals the winter of
81/82 already (in the central lowlands) despite the lack of sub -20ºC
thermometer readings (so far). The second half of January and February 82
was on the warm side. No guarantee that will be the case in 2010. The winter
of 46/47 was the same but in reverse, with an exceptional February...
January 2010 may well be it's equal.
I may be jumping the gun, but it's probably equally as foolish to write it
off at this stage as just another normal winter in Scotland, particularly at
the start of it's coldest phase.
Alex.