In article
,
Alex Stephens writes:
On Dec 19, 6:13*pm, John Hall wrote:
It now seems unlikely that the CET of this month will be any higher than
1.0C and it could well be quite a bit lower than that. I decided to see
how it might rank amongst cold Decembers of the past.

I'm not sure how far north you have to travel from the CET area to
reach area's that are likely to challenge or surpass December 1890 for
severity.
The average temperature at my site for December, halfway between
Edinburgh and Glasgow is currently -3.5ºC. This looks likely to fall
further in the coming week. I imagine both cities must be knocking on
the door of their coldest month EVER recorded.

That really is remarkable. ISTR reading in Manley's "Climate and the
British Scene" that Carlisle (I think) had recorded a monthly mean of
-4C in January 1795, and that so long as Britain remained an island
surrounded by unfrozen seas that was about as low a monthly mean as one
could get.
--
John Hall
"I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly,
will hardly mind anything else."
Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84)