richie3846

And possibly a fortnight, by the looks of some of the models. This mild spell reminds me of last year's amazing spell of late warmth. This spell is also amazing, in my opinion - it's just a tad overshadowed by last year. Looking at halloween, 20c could be on the cards for some.

And for those that missed it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/34489981

Not experienced by myself, but an amazing range at Braemar yesterday (1.10.15). -2c to 22.7C! Braemar was both the warmest and the coldest place in the UK on the same day.

http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/~brugge/CURR.html A pretty decent site for a snapshot of the month so far.

A summary of the warmth can be found here: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201508

The vast majority of stations will be over grass as this is what the standard measurement requires. There is the odd exception like London WC, I think that is on a roof.

Jeez.it's a bit early for the f word isn't it?!

I've just had a quick glance at the met's figures. Commercial revenue is around £200m or so - this is a massive hole in the balance sheet.

Do any of you guys know how much this contract is worth to the Met Office? Are we talking millions? Or tens of millions?

Quite a shock! I reckon the Met Office data is the best out there. I wonder who the beeb will use now? There is some good news if the BBC forecast goes down the pan though - the Met publish a regular video forecast at the bottom of the homepage. It is far more entertaining than the beeb, as the 'presenters' are clearly chosen on some sort of 'pull the short straw' system, so lack the refinement of the beeb presenters. I watch this forecast daily, for the weather forecast, and for the entertaining presenters too! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34031785

A similar thing happened last Sunday. By Thursday's forecast for Sunday, it was looking like a total write off for the south, with rain all day. What actually happened was an hour of moderate rain during the night followed by a glorious summer's day!

I know a lot has already been said on this subject but this is why I am sure the reading was valid: I live in Swindon, not too far from Heathrow really (I guess around 80 miles). By 9am temperatures were rocketing into the high 20s already. I already knew by then that perfect conditions could smash the Swindon (Lyneham) record of around 35c. All time record not July record. We ended up on about 32c. What stuffed it up for us, was that there was a great big bank of cloud around 1030-1230, followed by other smatterings of cloud throughout the afternoon. Despite the cloud, we still has the warmest temps since '06. We only had around 10 hours of sun I reckon, so a full 15 hours or so would have smashed that record. In addition, you could argue that town temperatures are what people actually feel. The Lyneham station is rural, exposed, on a hill. Swindon itself in a valley,10 miles further east, urban, and based on my own observations, though not scientifically perfect of course, can be 1-2c hotter on a summers day. I reckon it was 33.5c to 34c in Swindon itself that day. If there was a weather station actually in the town, the Heathrow value might not seem so far off.

Do you know what is causing this very cold pool of water? Is it ice melt from Greenland?

34.5c Northolt

The problem is with the torro site, is that it's not been updated for years. The October record of 29.9c set a few years back is nowhere to be seen. Does anyone know of a similar site which is updated regularly?

However, October warmth often comes in the form of warm cloudy nights. Cool nights in April give way to warm sunny days (when we are lucky!).

Lack of frost in Aberdeen is likely caused by sea surface temperatures around 2c above average. Very warm nights have been the theme in many coastal spots around the UK during September and early October, especially the south coast and south Wales.

My local weather station (Lyneham) recorded 25mm in a recent thunderstorm so that ended our dry spell! It was intense rain resulting with people stuck in floodwater on a train. With lightening every 10 seconds for hours it was like a mid-summer storm.

When I'm in my car, which has a thermometer reading on the dash (not very scientific I know!), I found it incredible the wide range of variation as I was driving around. On a long, regular commute route, I started to notice trends based on where I was. For example, on a cold night, there was a frost hollow which could knock 6c off the temperature. Also, again on a cold night, the temperature could rise 3c on driving between two lakes. The same lakes knocked 1-2c off on a warm day. I reckon it's easier to think of your garden as a slightly different micro-climate, than think there is something up with your readings. Most official sites are in the middle of fields anyhow, so it's bound to be different in your potentiallysheltered garden.

I've noticed the temperature forecasting anomaly for at least three months now. It tends to be 2-3c higher than forecast, mainly on fine days. I was starting to wonder if the met are trying to 'play it safe' - 2c higher is a pleasing bonus, whilst forecasting on the higher end, and it turning out 2c colder could lead to bad press and complaints.

I live in the Lyneham area, and have to disagree. Statistics don't always reveal the real truth. I think April was pretty good, whilst it was fairly wet overall and lacked an early heatwave, there was an abundance of fine sunny days, which were most pleasant and enjoyable. We had no cold snaps with every day reached at least 11c, and we had no air frost and 2 or 3 ground frosts. Plus we had 12 days in a row with no rain. I looked back at the last decade, and even warm Aprils had some sort of cold snap, so in fact it was a very temperate month indeed, instead of yo-yo-ing temperatures playing havoc with my internal thermostat!

I believe it to be March 2nd 1977. Exeter Airport 20.2c

When the Met, or BBC forecast 'rather', in English that actually means slightly, or vaguely. I remember back in the '90s, 13c and sunny being described by the BBC as 'rather' warm in sunshine. A hint of warmth. Therefore I would take this forecast to mean a tiny bit chilly, rather than full blown nor'easters!

I've had a thought....the longer we leave the heating off, the more the energy companies will charge us per unit, as they have to pay for the infrastructure, therefore any mild spell puts pressure on their profit margin. So we will end up paying them roughly the same in the long run even if we save in the short term......grrrrr!

I often check the wetterzentrale.de forecast and for once both this forecast from the met, and wetterzentrale agree. Up until yesterday, wetterzentrale were predicting much warmer nights. Now they are predicting cool nights too.