"Martin Rowley" wrote:
"Mike Tullett" wrote ...

snip earlier part of thread
Thanks so much for that. I hade a look through the data from my station,
1968 to 2002, and spotted something I always seem to forget. The same
period in 1976/77 had a mean here of only 2.7C. I then contacted Mark
Bailey at Armagh Observatory (obs started around 210 years ago) and he
kindly gave me the figures for there.

1962 Dec 4.5
1963 Jan 0.0

1976 Dec 1.8
1977 Jan 2.3

1978 Dec 4.3
1979 Jan 0.8

2009 Dec 3.0
2010 Jan 2.0

So not only was 76/77 a good deal colder than recently, it was in fact
colder than in the same two months in 62/63! That was a real surprise.
I
wonder what Aldergrove was in 76/77?

... From the Met. Office DWR/Monthly Summary:-

Aldergrove
1976 Dec Mean maximum 4.1, Mean minimum 0.3
1977 Jan Mean maximum 5.0, Mean minimum 0.0

I make that

1976 Dec 2.2
1977 Jan 2.5

Mike ... I was working in Aberdeen during the 76-77 winter
and remember December especially as very snowy (checking
the MWR reveals 21 days with snow lying at Dyce in Dec
and 11 in Jan (probably mostly in the first half). Braemar had
28 and 26 respectively.

I agree with Martin's figures for Aldergrove, but it is worth
pointing out this his source and my source (MWR) all
pre-1984 data refers to 12h day max and night min rather
than 24h max and 24h min. My data for this winter is also
12h maxes and mins.

I've also checked the 1976-77 figures for Dyce (0.6 degC
lower than this winter), Eskdalemuir (same as this winter),
Lerwick (0.8degC lower than this winter), and
Stornoway (also 0.8 degC lower than this winter).

Curiouser and curiouser.

Philip