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John Hall[_2_] · February 6th 15, 05:02 PM posted to uk.sci.weather

In message ,
writes
On Thursday, February 5, 2015 at 8:20:54 PM UTC, Dawlish wrote:
I think Keith's 'European update' may give the real clue as to why
this airflow is not terribly cold.

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Yes I think that's the main factor. Sea temperatures are higher these
days and the Baltic freezes less. But we don't seem to see the
Continent in the freezer too often these days and that must affect the
temperature of the air reaching the East coast on a North Easterly
surely. I'm confident if Europe gets another cold winter Essex will!
Unless you are in the minority at altitude I doubt anywhere has had a
truly cold spell yet this winter.

Although the wind has been from the NE for the last 24 hours or so, I
think if you track it back the air has had a maritime rather than a
continental origin. It's certainly not been within a couple of thousand
miles of Siberia, whatever the media might be saying, nor even from
anywhere near European Russia (even in the Good Old Days it was rare to
get air here that was genuinely from beyond the Urals).

What I've noticed this winter is that Reykjavik never seems to have been
severely cold. Its maxima don't seem to have ever been more than a
degree or two below freezing. In really cold northerly outbreaks in the
past, maxima of -5C were common there, and sometimes as low as -8 or -9.
When we've had air arriving from that direction, it's inevitably going
to be a good few degrees warmer by the time it reaches us. It's probably
linked to how far north the edge of the ice-cap is these days.
--
I'm not paid to implement the recognition of irony.
(Taken, with the author's permission, from a LiveJournal post)