Excuse my ignorance and weakness of having looked at "The Weather
Outlook" but has anyone heard of the following fact that I read on
TWO...

"Although the days are have now been lengthening for a while, the
weather tends to lag behind by about one month, meaning that on average
the coldest winter in the UK can be expected during the second half of
January and the first half of February."

In message .com,
Scott W writes
Excuse my ignorance and weakness of having looked at "The Weather
Outlook" but has anyone heard of the following fact that I read on
TWO...

"Although the days are have now been lengthening for a while, the
weather tends to lag behind by about one month, meaning that on average
the coldest winter in the UK can be expected during the second half of
January and the first half of February."

As the days they do get longer
so the cold it do get stronger

In a bucolic accent. Read somewhere, perhaps in the writings of John
Moore of Gloucestershire.

Seems to fit my general experience.

--
Peter Thomas

"Scott W" wrote in message
oups.com...
Excuse my ignorance and weakness of having looked at "The Weather
Outlook" but has anyone heard of the following fact that I read on
TWO...

"Although the days are have now been lengthening for a while, the
weather tends to lag behind by about one month, meaning that on
average
the coldest winter in the UK can be expected during the second half of
January and the first half of February."


This tends to come up every year about this time: see this graph

http://www.metoffice.com/research/ha..._act_graph.gif

which shows the pronounced 'dip' during February.

And a bit more here ...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/booty.w...ar.htm#Coldest

Martin.


--
FAQ & Glossary for uk.sci.weather at:-
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/booty.weather/uswfaqfr.htm
and
http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/metindex.htm

In article .com,
Scott W writes:
Excuse my ignorance and weakness of having looked at "The Weather
Outlook" but has anyone heard of the following fact that I read on
TWO...

"Although the days are have now been lengthening for a while, the
weather tends to lag behind by about one month, meaning that on average
the coldest winter in the UK can be expected during the second half of
January and the first half of February."


That's true. The balance between "incoming" and "outgoing" heat is still
negative for some weeks after the shortest day. Similarly, in summer on
average July and August are warmer than June.
--
John Hall

"I am not young enough to know everything."
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

...... although given the same air temperature, on a sunny day it would feel
warmer and lying snow (ah, I remember it well) would melt quicker, and have
a longer time to, I would imagine.

Dave
"John Hall" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
Scott W writes:
Excuse my ignorance and weakness of having looked at "The Weather
Outlook" but has anyone heard of the following fact that I read on
TWO...

"Although the days are have now been lengthening for a while, the
weather tends to lag behind by about one month, meaning that on average
the coldest winter in the UK can be expected during the second half of
January and the first half of February."


That's true. The balance between "incoming" and "outgoing" heat is still
negative for some weeks after the shortest day. Similarly, in summer on
average July and August are warmer than June.
--
John Hall

"I am not young enough to know everything."
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Though February can also feel decidedly spring like here in the south.
Even if it's cold.

I distinctly remember a Saturday last year (must have been sometime
around the 20th) with a temperature of only about 3C but with bright
sunshine and clear blue skies. The sun at that time in February is much
stronger than now and it didn't get properly dark till after 6. In many
ways the late winter and spring is the most 'interesting' season for
weather with vigorous alternation between biting cold and almost
summer-like warmth at times...

Nick

That's true. The balance between "incoming" and "outgoing" heat is still
negative for some weeks after the shortest day. Similarly, in summer on
average July and August are warmer than June.

And even in September the temperature is often still between 15 and 20C
in the late evening, with people eating outdoors...

That said, the strong sun in June makes a difference as to how it
feels, along with the fact we're not used to heatwaves yet. I remember
on June 11th last year being out in a day of 19C and strong sunshine.
It felt hot. Same temperatures at the end of August and it felt
autumnally cold...

Nick

Scott W wrote:

Excuse my ignorance and weakness of having looked at "The Weather
Outlook" but has anyone heard of the following fact that I read on
TWO...

"Although the days are have now been lengthening for a while, the
weather tends to lag behind by about one month, meaning that on average
the coldest winter in the UK can be expected during the second half of
January and the first half of February."

There is often a cold spell around February-ish for about two weeks
which has nothing I know of to do with the lag that gives us cold
weather at that time of year and that warmer weather spell in August.

One thing that is true is that February marks the Chinese new year,
probably for the same reason it is the middle of the British
agricultural winter. Cattle have consumed half the hay they are going
to by then since they will be in barns until May (the month before hay
is harvested once more.)

So far the reason for the lag has not yet been explained. It can't be
due to inversions as such cold weather in winter is due to sunny days
and cloudless nights.

There are lots of inexplicable things such as the above that have been
noted in weatherlore and ignored since we all evolved into the dumbies
that the BBC think we are.

That seems fair enough. On average, the extremes of temperature occur about
a month after the solstices, and the autumn equinox is warmer than the
spring equinox.

Ian Bingham,
Bieldside, Aberdeen.


"Scott W" wrote in message
oups.com...
Excuse my ignorance and weakness of having looked at "The Weather
Outlook" but has anyone heard of the following fact that I read on
TWO...

"Although the days are have now been lengthening for a while, the
weather tends to lag behind by about one month, meaning that on average
the coldest winter in the UK can be expected during the second half of
January and the first half of February."

Scott W wrote:

Excuse my ignorance and weakness of having looked at "The Weather
Outlook" but has anyone heard of the following fact that I read on
TWO...

"Although the days are have now been lengthening for a while, the
weather tends to lag behind by about one month, meaning that on average
the coldest winter in the UK can be expected during the second half of
January and the first half of February."


When I looked into this about forty years ago - damn I feel old - I found
mid-January was roughly the coldest time of the year and mid-July the
warmest.

The figures were based on Northern Hemisphere stations that had mean
temperatures falling near to or below zero for a time. This was to give me
a couple of fixed dates when I'd start calculating warming and freezing
degree days. The dates had to be multiples of 10-day periods as that was
the frequency at which we issued our ice charts. January 21st was the
nearest start of a ten-day period matching the time of minimum temperature.

What made the selection tricky was that many Arctic stations had two minima,
one in December and the other in February, but this may have been due to
the short period of validity of the "normals" for these stations - many
were only for ten years.


--
Graham Davis
Bracknell