drfeelgood

Oh Ok, you're right, I stand corrected March 1949 was 5.1C The CET archive is certaily not easy on the eye is it?

Apparently the last time March was the coldest month of the "winter" was way back in 1916.

Maxima of 12 in the last 6 days?? Maybe in Ireland, but I honestly don't know of many places here in the UK that have had these sort of temps. I think many areas have struggled to reach even 8C. Winter is definitely not over.

This is getting very exciting! If the weekend turns out to be that cold this March could end up being the coldest since 1883!!! (1.9C). Here are the Marches to beat: 1962 =2.8c 1892= 2.7c 1883 = 1.9c

Looking at the various forecasts, it also looks like the expected mild spell has been cancelled, or at least, it's not going to be that "mild"anymore. Next weekend for example was supposed to see maxes well over 10C...that has now been downgraded by many forecasters and in fact Metcheck has done a u-turn and is now forecasting a chilly weekend to end this remarkable month!

The figure to beat is 2.8C (1962) - not entirely impossible if we believe what the models are tellings us.

I'm wondering when Stevenson screens were first invented and widely used because I know that pre-19th century thermometers were often not screened at all. This had the effect of overestimating maxima and undersestimating minima. And as you were saying, the distortion was often enhanced when there was a lot of snow on the ground. Apparently, some thermometers were simply placed on fences! My question is if pre-19th century data was so unreliable, doesn't this raise the question of whether the "Little Ice Age" was exaggerated by these distorted readings. There were quite a lot of readings below -20C even in Southern England in the 17th and 18th centuries. If we now say that these are unreliable, then what grounds do we have for saying there was really such a thing as the LIA? Apart from the Thames freezing...etc?

looks like someone has beaten me to the honour of the most ridiculously low forecast...damn! :o

The Beeb has revised down its forecast for London for tomorrow from 9C (max) to only 2C (max)!! Although I'm used to the Beeb routinely overestimating their temps, this one is pretty drastic even by their standards. As for the rest of next week, I remember their forecast was for highs or 10 or even 11....it looks like that mild spell has been cancelled! :lol:

I'm betting March will be the coldest month of the "winter": 3.8C for me....just for fun B)

There was a brief snow shower too here in Finsbury Park!

Any stats on London? I don't recall very many 10C+ days down here either....

If it's only the last 10 years then not much snow really, except for the 5cm or so we got in 2003, and a few flurries and snow/rain mix in other years. I was in Paris for my gap year in '96'97 - it snowed briefly there in January and the temp got down to -11C at one point - so I'm guessing it must have snowed here too, though maybe not as cold?