Nick H

As it's the most westerly cathedral in Great Britain, might it be the wettest city in the UK? I think it needs a new thread - UK's wettest city. Well, it is a city, isn't it? It has been granted the Royal Charter.

I think London is the coldest city.

New Year's Eve 1996 and the first three days of New Year 1997 were arguably the last time London saw genuinely freezing cold weather. http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119961231.gif The minimum in Central London on 31 Dec, 1 Jan, 2 Jan was -3.6°C on all three mornings. On 3 Jan the minimum was -3.4°C. Since 3 Jan 1997, the temperature has never been lower than -2.2°C in Central London (25/01/2006, and it still reached 7C during the day). Since the end of Jan 1997, London has only dropped to -2.0°C or lower on three occasions. There were two ice days in London that month: the 1st (max -0.5C) and the 8th (max -0.1C). Needless to say, London has not got anywhere close to another ice day since. My station in the Chilterns logged -6°C on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Jan 1997. I haven't recorded anything lower since. The lowest temperature in the entire country that month was -15C at Shepshed, Leicestershire, on the 3rd. The Thames froze at Marlow for the first time in 50 years. There was another cold spell in London almost a year earlier, in Jan 1996. From late afternoon on Jan 25 to lunchtime on the 27th there was continual frost in London and the minima on the 26th and 27th were -4.3°C and -4.6°C respectively, with a maximum of -0.4°C on the 26th. Such intense cold in London has been unheard of in the last decade. This year, for example, Central London has recorded just one frost, on 17 Feb, when -0.8°C was logged. There may be a frost tonight and in the next couple of nights in London, however. No of air frosts in Central London 1996 12 1997 10 1998 3 1999 5 2000 4 (the last 4 days of the year) 2001 8 2002 4 2003 9 2004 6 2005 12 2006 11 2007 4 2008 1 (to 28th Dec)

Edinburgh was pretty near the sea last time I looked! 2 good calls there - you often see Buxton and Leek Thorncliffe in the coldest-by-day tables in winter. Hereford can get pretty cold too (is that a city? It certainly has a cathedral).

Leeds/Bradford Airport is 208m feet asl, Leeds centre about 40m. Add on about 2C for Leeds. A couple of other points which would lead me to intuitively believe Leeds is milder than York... Leeds is far more urbanised than York, which is relatively small for a city. The Vale of York is far more rural than the areas which surround Leeds and can get extremely frosty and foggy in winter.

York is colder than Leeds according to http://worldweather.wmo.int/010/c00039.htm http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/ave...mowthorpe_.html Edinburgh can't be colder than Aberdeen, Dundee or Inverness. In certain synoptic set ups and possibly at certain times of the year, maybe. But I can't believe anywhere in E Anglia is colder averaged over a year than the far NE of England. E Anglia is probably 2nd to the south east in terms of summer warmth,whilst NE England must be the coldest. It is quite common to see places like Cambridge and especially places in Norfolk and Southern Lincolnshire around the Wash at the top of the daily temps tables in summer whilst I regularly see places life Loftus and Redesdale Camp at the bottom.

Durham must be colder than Leeds. I should think Newcastle, Carlisle and York are also colder.

Very premature imo. By your own admission you never thought this year would be as cool as it has been. There were long periods in the 1920s and 1930s and again the 1960s and 1970s when no 10.0+C year was recorded. I certainly expect each year to come in above 10.0C these days but to say never again below 10 seems naive.

Thanks Kevin, interesting as ever. Ross can't be more than 20 miles from Malvern but seems to have recorded 50% more sunshine on the 20th Dec.

Yes it is good, I think the BBC now do a Weatherview at 9.25pm on their News Channel which shows synoptics for the next few days. More please...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd6DuebHliY&...feature=related Ian McCaskill on the late forecast, 6 Feb 1991. Just look at those "numbers", as Mr Corbett would say, 1min53sec into the tape.

Sunniest Dec ever is 2001 with 75hrs18min. We'll be well over half way to that figure by the end of Wed 10th.

The dashed line in Eden's graph shows the decline in temp as December progresses. http://www.climate-uk.com/graphs/0812.htm The decline is most rapid in the first third of the month. I was very surprised looking at that graph how little the temperature declines in December. The minima hardly fall at all and the maxima by no more than 1.0C. I'm sure June, as the 1st month of summer, shows a much greater warmer trend than December does cooling.

It is indeed. Mind you, as I've said before, I think all weather "records" from the 19th c. and early 20th c. have to be taken with a massive pinch of salt.

Well Glasgow had its coldest November day since 1985 yesterday. The maximum yesterday on the Warcop Range was -3.0C. But on the 20th November 2004 Loch Glascarnoch did not climb above -3.8C and the maximum on the 28th Nov 1993 at Braemar was -8C. Anyway, Nov 2008 turned out to be .1C above average on Manley.

The temperature on the morning of the 21st November 2004 was -13.2C in the Highlands, and in 1993 the overnight temperature 27th-28th Nov in the same location was -15C. So the -11C recorded last night at Tulloch Bridge is not a record breaker for November, although it did threaten the date record of -12C.

I'd be surprised if even in Leicestershire leaves start falling in late September. This year, London's trees didn't start shedding until the second half of October. In recent years autumn seems to have started later and later and finished earlier and earlier. In my experience anyway.

Presumably the area known as Broadwater Farm (as in the riots of '85), is a reflection of Tottenham's early rural history.

The highest temperature this summer was 30.2°C at Cambridge NIAB (the Botany Institute) on July 28 2008. This was, like last year, an occasion where the Met Office conveniently "found" a temperature that exceeded 29.9°C after the month's end. The highest temperature in the centre of Cambridge (Guildhall) that day was 28°C according to Weatheronline. But some farmland to the north of the city apparently recorded a temperature 2°C higher than the town centre. But then again the Met Office says so, so it must be right.

Possibly some places but I don't think it would be remarkable as it first seems. The end of August is only three weeks from the autumnal equinox and the end of February only three weeks from the vernal equinox. Now, June and December would be remarkable (and I think Aberdeen managed it a couple of years ago).

I generally do not mind hot weather. I have found age (I'm in my mid-fifties) has not had much impact on my heat tolerance levels (although I am pretty fit - I run 3-4 miles most days). I go to central Europe most years in June and find the temps of 30-33c very agreeable. I do have a little giggle when I hear people say that anything above 23/24c is uncomfortable. I came off the M6 at the Tebay services in Cumbria last month and was amazed to find the girls at the cash register complaining about the heat. It must have been 21C that day. But I have been in the Persian Gulf when it is in the high-40s and that's something else. You walk out of the hotel and it's like an industrial hair dryer - the wind is actually burning. As for cold weather, I don't have a problem really with that either. You can just add another layer.

Am I the only one who finds the Eiffel Tower completely overrated? The thing is just a boring, uninspiring mass lump of iron. Give me the Rialto Bridge, St Stephen's Cathedral, the Hungarian Parliament any day before that Parisian ennui.

You could tell it was going to be a crap forecast just by looking at his shirt.

SE was certainly hot but in the CET series it is still the 5th hottest August on record and it's also the 4th driest over England and Wales.

I'm pretty sure that figure (27.8°C to be exact) is not accepted by the Met Office. According to a local weather historian, Dave Wheeler, it was recorded from the north-facing wall of the courthouse of a lighthouse exposed to the sun. http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2008/08/01/...peratures-soar/ From that article.... The highest official reading for Shetland is 25.4°C in Baltasound in July 1958. The highest official reading for Lerwick was 23.3°C in August 1982. I would add my usual disclaimer about the veracity of records 100 years ago...