March 2013 CET (2012/13 CET Competition)

[Optimus Prime]

The UK value covers the whole of the UK. If the BBC were only publishing provisional figures on the CET they'd have people whinging they don't live in England resulting from a figure that might not take their area into account.

The UK value in general represents the UK far better than the CET value alone. I highly doubt the UK value once released will beat 1962's figure. You never know but looking back at the 1962 charts winds often came from the North as well as the NE and East so the northern half of the country would have received some of the coldest temperatures. With such an easterly month just gone the main pool of cold was across England and the NE/E

In reality the media has behaved perfectly normal. Give it a few days and we'll have all the figures.

Edited April 1, 2013 by Optimus Prime

[hillbilly]

They'll be having a crisis meeting right now, trying to work out how to pin in on climate change.

maybe the figures are so close and get mixed up between averages and cet,which is coldest?figures are very easy to manipulate and areas are very different met office gives 1.75 average for march 1947 in this area for bradford station which is way colder

[Gustywind]

I do still think though the media will plug heat related records with more zest than cold records, the reason being the ability to link it into the global warming issue and the potentially long term devastating effects that could have.

A new ice age just isn't a possibility currently so they don't have any other headline grabbing angle with cold records.

[Roger J Smith]

It was also anomalously cold in central North America, negative anomalies of about 3 to 8 C deg were reported from most states between North Dakota and Georgia, with Minot ND a full 8.0 C below normal. This anomaly extended north into central Canada. On the other hand, parts of northern New England and eastern Canada were above normal due to a mild east to northeast flow.

So the Greenland blocking high and its associated central Canadian arctic ridge made a wide impact on the monthly stats.

Although the month was near normal here, the last two days of the month were near record warm with 21 C recorded at my location on Sunday (normal here is about 12 C).

[johnholmes]

Here's one from last year:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17595024

Also numerous other links to sunshine records, single day records etc, if you search on march warm on bbc site.

Probably being over cynical though and with it being a bank holiday today as well, best wait a day or two before reaching any premature conclusions.

your quote was issued on 3rd April and without a BH just prior to it, today is 1 April a BH and with a weekend prior and a BH prior to that. Seems a good enough reason with no admin staff around since last Thursday when they did issue something about the coldest up to, what was it 26th March.

[Gustywind]

Yes i agree John, I'll wait a few more days before conveying any further cynicism towards the uk media!

[DAVID SNOW]

Yes i agree John, I'll wait a few more days before conveying any further cynicism towards the uk media!

Lets see how post number 438 holds up.

Edited April 1, 2013 by DAVID SNOW

[Roger J Smith]

Here's how it will probably go down ...

"This past March was exceptionally cold because of widespread warming," said Prof. Bryan Boffin-Jones of the Institute for Advanced Angst. "The warmer it gets, the colder it can become," he added, taking a much longer puff on his pipe and looking off into the middle distance as though he possibly recognized something, or someone, from a very distant past.

"We've been saying for many years now that whatever happened would prove our theory, and look, we're obviously right," he said with an obvious air of satisfaction at a job half done.

"But nobody here at the Institute for Advanced Angst was ready for something quite this obvious as validation of our fears and, as the name implies, our very considerable angst. If it warms in the arctic, polar bears could die. If it cools in the arctic, polar bears could die. If it stays exactly the same, polar bears could die. No matter how you look at things, polar bears could die. And that should force everyone with half a brain to pay more taxes."

"What about people with fully functioning brains?" asked this reporter.

"Well, for people like that, who are no doubt climate criminals, there will be trials, and internment camps, and re-education, and a number of other measures to shut them up," added the professor, who was by now furiously puffing on his pipe.

"Climate criminals are causing this unusual weather, and must stand in the dock of history to answer for their cars."

"But didn't you say about ten years ago that it would keep warming up?"

"No, you can't prove that, there is no evidence for that. The records are sealed. Nobody ever said that. We changed our mind. Okay, the secret is out, we haven't got a clue. We were just going on to see if people would give us money, and they did, and now we've spent it and you can't have it back."

This, then, is the view at the frontiers of modern science.

[Weather-history]

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/mly_cet_min_sort.txt

December 2010 was the last time a record was set for the entire series.

Amazingly it was colder than December 1995, minimum wise! That is a surprise.

[BornFromTheVoid]

A record cold March for most stations in Ireland

http://www.met.ie/climate/MonthlyWeather/sum1.pdf

[Weather-history]

Let's look at the rundown for this month

1. The coldest March with 1892 since 1883

2. The coldest March CET mean maximum on record. (Since 1878)

3. The coldest CET mean maximum for a spring month on record.

4. The joint 5th coldest CET mean minimum for March on record.

5. The 6th coldest CET month in the last 25 years

6. The 5th coldest CET mean minimum in the last 25 years.

7. The coldest second half to March with 1883 since 1853

8. The first time a March has been colder than a colder than average January and February in the same year since 1786

9. The first time a below average March has returned a CET colder than the previous winter that was also below average since 1962

Edited April 2, 2013 by Weather-history

[March Blizzard]

For a month that was so notable for low maxima to achieve the joint 5th lowest minima too Is remarkable. Even moreso when you consider how much cloud was about.

[DAVID SNOW]

Lets see how post number 438 holds up.

From the official Met Ofiice News Blog.

"March 2013 is the joint second coldest on record"

Equall to 1947,but not beating 1962.

For some reason they are only going as far back as 1910?And therefore have decided NOT to mention the CET value,which as we know would have taken this record way back to Victorian times................

[Cheshire Freeze]

From the official Met Ofiice News Blog.

"March 2013 is the joint second coldest on record"

Equall to 1947,but not beating 1962.

For some reason they are only going as far back as 1910?And therefore have decided NOT to mention the CET value,which as we know would have taken this record way back to Victorian times................

Strange as I'm relatively sure they've used the CET value before as I remember the video explaining how the average is worked out. Why use the CET in one instance then ignore it in another?

Surely the coldest CET in over 100 years is noteworthy?

Edited April 2, 2013 by CreweCold

[coram]

Strange as I'm relatively sure they've used the CET value before as I remember the video explaining how the average is worked out. Why use the CET in one instance then ignore it in another?

Surely the coldest CET in over 100 years is noteworthy?

Pretty sure that the Met Office rarely use the CET. They mostly use the UK wide figures going back to 1910 and then split it out by country. Don't think that there is any conspiracy here.

[Weather-history]

Pretty sure that the Met Office rarely use the CET. They mostly use the UK wide figures going back to 1910 and then split it out by country. Don't think that there is any conspiracy here.

I think the clue that there is no conspiracy is the fact they said March 2013 was joint 2nd coldest on record. Hardly hiding the facts!

[Cheshire Freeze]

Who mentioned conspiracy?

[Summer Sun]

On average March 2013 was 2.2C - just 0.3C above the 1.9C seen in March 1962.

http://news.sky.com/story/1073056/weather-end-of-freezing-spell-finally-in-sight

[reef]

Another interesting fact about March 2013 is that the coldest spells almost exactly coincided with the same points of the month which saw the warmest days last year:

It also highlights how exceptional the last ten days were compared to the average, some 6-7 degrees below normal.

[hillbilly]

for all those batting on about the cold march not being in the news........watch todays news.....

[Snowyowl9]

The coldest march of the 20th century at 2.7c final figure came out on hadley.

http://www.metoffice..._info_mean.html

The coldest since 1962 on climate UK at 2.91c

[Summer Sun]

Met office standing firm that it was the 2nd coldest march only 1962 was colder http://www.bbc.co.uk...atures/22021114

[Weather-history]

Met office standing firm that it was the 2nd coldest march only 1962 was colder http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/22021114

I don't know why there is a song and dance about this. The Met Office is a UK organisation, it forecasts for the UK It will give info and talk at the UK level. What does one expect? If it were to give info at say the CET level it would then be accused that its a southern organisation, bias to the south, not interest in the north etc.

[Midlands Ice Age]

The coldest march of the 20th century at 2.7c final figure came out on hadley.

http://www.metoffice..._info_mean.html

The coldest since 1962 on climate UK at 2.91c

I'll try again - the site just crashed on me whilst keying this in the first time.

Do not understand the Met Office site above.

Why is it that the front tab on the site shows it as 2.7C, when if one looks at the final estimated daily mean dataset (click on it to see) shows 2.87C.

I always thought that at the beginning of the next month was updated to show the correct values for the previous month.

Has this not happened yet?

Midlands Ice Age

[Midlands Ice Age]

I'll try again - the site just crashed on me whilst keying this in the first time.

Do not understand the Met Office site above.

Why is it that the front tab on the site shows it as 2.7C, when if one looks at the final estimated daily mean dataset (click on it to see) shows 2.87C.

I always thought that at the beginning of the next month was updated to show the correct values for the previous month.

Has this not happened yet?

Midlands Ice Age

Just answered my own question - the estimated datasets are never updated to show the actual values.

Sorry to have bothered anyone. But it is useful to know that the actual and estimated datasets are never corrected to each-other. It is also interesting that this is the first time that I can remember that the climate-Uk datasets have turned out higher

Met Office's own version.

Midlands Ice Age