Spirit of 1740

The patterns weren't especially cold this month, I believe, particularly in terms of circulation and the amount of sunshine. Therefore, I believe that a July CET of 14c, as recorded in 1965, could still be possible today.

Hi Kold. :o I am one of those philistines still using the 1961-90 averages as I believe that they represent a good benchmark for the pre-recent warming climate, whereas I think the 1971-2000 are a bit of a half-way house between the last 10 years' climate and that before the warming set-in. Anyway, that debate can run and run. Therefore, by the 61-90 averages, July 2007 was colder than March 2006. However, I accept your point on December 2001, so just 3rd coldest since Jan 97 then. The one thing on that, though, is that the cold of that month was focussed on the CET area (the METO areal series were not as cold) whereas with this month I expect the CET value to be fully reflected in the more extensive series.

Hadley CET has just come in and much colder than we expected - 15.2c - equal coldest with 1993 since 1988. :o http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadcet/cetml1659on.dat This was the second coldest month relative to average since January 1997 - only October 2003 was colder. June and July have a collective anomaly of 0.0c relative to the 1961-90 average. Hopefully, August will deliver the very elusive and much beloved below-average summer.

So you reckon the last 8 days (including today) could have a mean of 18.1c? <_<