"Trevor Harley" wrote in message
news:2010012409183616807-taharley@dundeeacuk...
With this morning's readings, the monthly average for this part of
Scotland is now no longer negative, sitting at exacty 0C. Or 0.00 as many
students love to say.

Although I'm pleased that life is (relatively) back to normal, I do feel a
bit sad about this. And I do find myself yearning for that white cover
again; what short memories we have.

Trevor

Current mean for January is now -0.8ºC in Wishaw. It'll be touch and go
regarding whether or not the figure remains negative at the end of the
month.
December narrowly missed out here by 0.07ºC. The statistics seem destined to
hide just how severe the cold was because it ran from roughly mid December
to mid January. (December 13th - January 11th mean was -3.4ºC).
January 1987 had a mean of -0.2ºC here, and January 1985 -0.5ºC, so it's
going to turn out the coldest since at least one of those.

However, with the winter mean likely to be very near or at 0.0ºC by the end
of January and given there's an average February (by no means certain) it
would be the coldest winter here since 1978/79.

Around half a mile from here there was a burst water main pipe during the
height of the cold, it wasn't fixed for quite a few days. The street running
down hill from it still has several huge piles of brown ice (6ft- 8ft high)
that I'd expect will still be around in May. Must take a picture. At first
glance it just looks like piles of earth so dirty is the ice. It's a
constant reminder of how cold it was until quite recently.

Alex.