On Saturday 09 Jan 2010 12:42, scribbled:

"Graham P Davis" wrote:
On Saturday 09 Jan 2010 11:53, Philip Eden scribbled:
"Graham P Davis" wrote:

Also, I remember that 6th March 63 was the first day at Bedford when we
had
a temperature higher than PS 0 since Christmas. Now that's not a
persistent
frost but quite a long chilly spell just the same.

I take it you mean a *minimum* temperature higher than zero, Graham.
And I'm guessing that's Bedford/Thurleigh which is not quite
the same as Bedford town.

No, a maximum higher than PS 0 - above zero but not PS 1. Sounds unlikely
but that's how I remember a comment on the morning of the 6th made by the
other assistant at RAE Bedford who'd been keeping a graph of the
temperature.

I joined Bedford on the 18th February. Before that, I was at Wyton where
I recall a couple of occasions where we had thaws lasting a few hours.
When I
was at Bedford, on one of the numerous days when temperatures had been
forecast to rise to 10C, a warm front had gone through and we were in a
sw'ly warm sector but the temperature stubbornly remained stuck at just
above zero. That was the closest I can remember us getting to a plausible
thaw situation until the 6th - a beautiful, warm, mostly sunny day with
temperature I think reaching the giddy heights of 6-7C. The ground was
still
frozen hard and mostly covered with snow.

This is how I've remembered that winter ever since it ended but the older
I
get the less sure I am. I guess I'll have nagging doubts now until I see
the
log-books for 03558 for that winter.

I did, in fact, copy all the monthly means and extremes at both
Thurleigh and Cardington in 1981 for a comparison of the two
sites which appeared in 'Weather' for November 1982, and many
thanks are due to Brian Cole (not sure whether he's still with us)
who was Chief Met Officer at Thurleigh not just for putting up
with me, but for feeding me tea and biscuits too.

From that paper (I can't lay my hands immediately on the
original transcripts) the temperature reached 4.0°C at
Thurleigh in January and 4.2°C in February. But there was a
considerable difference in snow-cover between the two sites:
Cardington had 30 days in Jan, 13 in Feb, and none in Mar;
Thurleigh had 31 in Jan, 28 in Feb, and 2 in Mar. The max
temp on 6 Mar -- I remember it clearly too! -- was 15.9°C
at Cardington and 15.0°C at Thurleigh.


Thanks for that, Philip. Seems I got it wrong all those years ago. I don't
know whether it's good news or not that my memory failed me on this when I
was about twenty rather than now I'm 65. ;-)

--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks., UK. E-mail: newsman not newsboy
"I wear the cheese. It does not wear me."

On Saturday 09 Jan 2010 15:15, Graham P Davis scribbled:

Thanks for that, Philip. Seems I got it wrong all those years ago. I don't
know whether it's good news or not that my memory failed me on this when
I was about twenty rather than now I'm 65. ;-)


Mind you, one persistent frost that I am sure about occurred in my bedroom -
probably in the 1961-2 winter. It lasted at least three days as that was the
length of time that a dusting of snow on my window-ledge persisted.

--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks., UK. E-mail: newsman not newsboy
"I wear the cheese. It does not wear me."

"Trevor Harley" wrote in message
news:2010010909044916807-taharley@dundeeacuk...
The temperature rose to the giddy heights of +0.4 just after midnight,
bringing to and end 80 hours of continuous frost - by far the longest such
stretch I've recorded here, although I see from my records there must have
been a longer period in Leamington at the end of January 1995.

Given the averageness of my station, there must be many longer stretches
of frost recorded elsewhere. Anyone beat 80 hours?

Looking in the wider context, this must be far from extraordinary.
Presumably there were spells in 1929, 1947, 1954, 1963, 1986, 1987, and
1995 that produced longer periods of continuous frost. From my own pages I
note that Widdybank Fell in County Durham stayed beneath freezing all of
February 1986, and recorded 32 frost days. This seems excessive to me, and
I'm not sure it's right.

I'm not sure what the longest stretch in "lowland Britain" is, but must
have been in one of those months.

Trevor
http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~taharley/


Currently at 77 hours of continuous sub zero temp's in Wishaw (the longest
of this winter so far) .I thought it mind end earlier this afternoon but the
mercury only reached -0.2ºC.
Perhaps more interestingly, thus far in January the temperature has only
been above zero for 5 hours and 25 minutes here;
5 hours on the 2nd
5 minutes on the 5th
20 minutes on the 6th.

There's been many frosts exceeding 80 hours here, even in the more recent
past, the last three being;
86 hours 18th - 22nd December, 2007.
126.5 hours 25th - 31st December, 2000
136 hours 24th - 31st December, 1995.

The longest I can find locally was 7 days (160hours +) Jan 5th - Jan12th
1982.

Alex.
Wishaw, Central Lowlands.