Dave Cornwell wrote:

I've just been having an esoteric moment which usually means that I am about
to spout rubbish so feel free to tell me so!

A lot of our extreme records, although fact, tend to relate to the impact
they have had on us. But the weather itself isn't interested in what effect
it has on us. So scientists are racking their brains deciding whether this
purely arbitary period of January and February exceptional rainfall might be
related to climate change. But what if I were to tell you that last July and
August was the least windy period in the UK for 250 years? Who would know
that? But would it be any less significant in its requirement to be studied
as a possible link to climate change? The thing that has occured to me during
this thought is that is it also surprising that so many weather records seem
to be being broken? As far as I know there aren't a specific set of records
like the Olympic records. So you can pull any combination of time periods ,
any of the many weather variables and any location you like and there will be
a record broken for a greater or lesser chosen time period! The joys of
being retired (fully now!) :-) Dave

I think I see what you're getting at, Dave, but that's the joy of the subject!
There's a lot of similarity between the love of obscure weather records and the
love of obscure cricket records. There's always someone who can say when the
last time was that someone scored a century at Trent Bridge in a day when
batting at number 8 after having taken 5 for 30 - or some other such obscure
record.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.