Steve Jones wrote in message ...
I was wondering today whether there has ever been a winter (Dec, Jan &
Feb) where the temperature has not fallen below zero. Lets say somewhere
in the far south of England.

If not then how many years until this occurs. Maybe not that long.


Steve

I think it's been done several times in the Scillies (as previously
mentioned). Possibly other places on the Cornwall/Devon coast too. The
winter of 1989-90 at Heathrow came close with:

December (2): 1st -1.8 min
2nd -0.7
January (0) abs.min. 0.0 on 14th
February (1): 16th -0.5
(from Whitaker 1990)

However as often happens, the 'extended winter' made up for it, with 5
in November culminating in -5.6 on 26th, another 1 in March (-0.6,
2nd) and 3 in April with min. -1.8 on 5th. Here in Shropshire we've
never come remotely near it in my time here (17yrs), though it's worth
mentioning 1997-98 when the lowest temperature of the 'winter' was in
October.