"Alex Stephens Jr" wrote:

I guess this article was shown on BBC reporting Scotland last night...
"Scots winter coldest on record"
"Scotland has had its coldest December and January since records began
nearly 100 years ago, according to met office figures."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8493129.stm

As has already been discussed in another thread, this is simply not true.
December/January 1981/82 was colder across the whole of Scotland, I
haven't seen any proof yet that even one station or area has had a colder
2 month period this time around?
Many sites also recorded a lower mean for December/January 1978/79, though
this wasn't the case in the central lowlands. And some sites also had a
lower mean for December/January 1976/77, again not the case in this area.
December/January 1939/40 must also be a strong candidate for having a
colder mean Scotland-wide?
To be factually correct the article should be titled, "some parts of
Scotland have had there 2nd or 3rd coldest December/January in 100 years".
But this doesn't grab the headlines, sadly.
I also note the stat's are attributed to met office figures and not
necissarily the met office themselves... What figures are these? Does
anyone know?
And what happened to February being a winter month?
Alex.

Alex ... I've done a bit more digging:
in southern Scotland there were colder Dec/Jans in 1878-79,
1879-80, 1890-91, 1939-40, 1962-63, 1976-77, 1978-79, and
1981-82. It was almost as cold in 1940-41, 1944-45, 1950-51,
1958-59 and 1961-62. My suspicion is that the number of colder
Dec/Jans in northern Scotland might be even larger, although a few
of the members of the list might be different.

Philip