Just out of interest, 20% of the summers following hyper-mild winters (winter CET18 deg C) were "average" in terms of temperature, 20% were "warm", and 60% were "very warm", if the summers are split 5 ways (very cool, cool, average, warm, very warm) based on the sum of the CETs.

Of course this reflects the fact that lots of very mild winters were recent, and recent years (summers and winters alike) have been warmer than previously.

But if you look at the 8 winters before 1850 where the winter CET was 17 (very mild winters in a less warm period), the split is [0,2,1,2,3], so even discounting the impact of recent warming, warmer summers are favoured if the winters are very mild.

Better spend the money for a new sledge on buckets, spades, and sun-tan cream. Southwold here we come....

Brac