Assuming that the main part of this winter has gone - and if the severe cold
does not return soon it would be a cold Spring rather than a cold Winter - I
had a quick look through my records. They are not to the official standard,
but they do allow a comparison of "like with like". The observatory
location is in my "sig" at the end of the post.

There were *three* winters at this site in the 1980s which set records the
current winter has not even approached.

1982 - A real Siberian blast arrived in January, and overnight 13/14 January
our thermometer sunk to -14C, and that with a significant easterly blowing
so it was not just a radiation night over snow. It hasn't been below -11C
since. We also had 21 days with snow lying that winter - this year we have
had 12 (3 in December and 9 consecutive in January).

1985 - From 13-18 January the temperature remained below freezing, a record
of six consecutive "Ice Days". We have had no more than two together at a
time this winter. 1985 had 12 "Ice Days" and no less than 104 days with
frost in the year between December 1 1984 and November 30 1985.

1987 - On 12 January the temperature did not rise above -6.7C. No Ice Day
since has even got near this, the maximum is normally about -2C or -3C at
worst. For "afters" we had 18cm of level snow down on 19 March that year.

And in the very first month of my records, January 1980, the temperature
only rose above freezing on 6 of the 31 days. This year was actually close,
only 8 days in January with no frost.

All the above records still stand and so have stood for over 20 years. As I
am one of those who accept the evidence for global warming - and can see the
signal in the annual temperatures for my own station - I do not expect to
see them broken (except possibly the snow depth) unless we get something
truly exceptional.

However, I get the impression from other contributors that the situation
varies across the country and, in particular, the further north you go the
more severe in relation to past years this winter has been. It would be
interesting to see some similar statistics from other locations and see how
exceptional - or otherwise - this winter is depending on where you live.
--
- Yokel -
Yokel @ Ashurst New Forest
SU 336 107 17m a.s.l.

"Yokel" posts via a spam-trap account which is not read.