"Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote in message
...
"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

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

Thanks for the much wider historical perspective Philip... And so much for
records begining "nearly 100 years ago".
Interesting to see 3 and 4 year batches crop up again. Bodes well for the
next winter or two!

As an interesting aside, the February mean is currently negative here, so
the provisional winter mean figure is not far away from the all time record,
26 days for that to change of course. I shall resist the devil's advocate
temptation forthwith. :-)

Alex.