Winter 1868-69

[Weather-history]

Winter 1868-69 

CETs
December 1868: 7.2
January 1869: 5.6 
February 1869: 7.5 
December 2nd-21st: 8.2
January: The first half: 6.5
February: The first half: 8.8

 

CET trackometer for winter 1868-69 December: first value; January: second value; February third value
1. 6.3 4.3 8.2
2. 7.2 6.2 7.2
3. 7.8 6.3 8.2
4. 8.6 6.6 8.8
5. 9.0 6.7 9.0
6. 9.3 6.6 9.1 
7. 9.3 6.8 9.3
8. 9.0 7.2 9.4
9. 8.8 7.2 9.2
10. 8.8 7.1 9.4
11. 8.6 6.9 9.3
12. 8.2 6.7 8.9
13. 8.2 6.6 8.8
14. 8.3 6.5 8.8
15. 8.3 6.5 8.7
16. 8.2 6.6 8.8
17. 8.2 6.5 8.7
18. 8.2 6.4 8.6
19. 8.0 6.2 8.4
20. 8.0 6.1 8.2
21. 8.1 5.9 8.2
22. 8.0 5.7 7.9
23. 7.9 5.5 7.7
24. 7.8 5.2 7.6
25. 7.7 5.1 7.6
26. 7.7 5.1 7.7
27. 7.7 5.2 7.6
28. 7.6 5.3 7.5
29. 7.5 5.4
30. 7.4 5.5
31. 7.2 5.6

Some reports from stations
Selborne
December: The mildest December I have ever recorded and the most tempestuous with prevailing SW winds
Highest max: 64.5F 
3 air frosts
January: On the whole a tempestuous month and unprecendently mild, the wind though high, being SW to SE
9 air frosts
February: Vegetation about 6 weeks earlier than average; yew and box in flower early in month.
Highest max: 51.0F 
8 air frosts

Banbury
December: Very wet month; draba verna in blossom on last day
Highest max: 56.0F
5 air frosts
January: High winds on 4th and 28th to end of month
Highest max: 54.0F
6 air frosts
February: Snow on 12th and 22nd; violets in bloom on 20th
Highest max: 56.0F
5 air frosts

Culford
December: A mild month of mild weather for the season
January: The weather throughout has been remarkably mild, no snow. Gooseberry bushes almost in leaf and apricot blooms nearly open.
Bridport
December: Very mild and stormy month. Crocuses in flower in the garden
2 air frosts
January: Very mild month
4 air frosts
February: A mild month and vegetation very forward
4 air frosts

Shifnal
December: snowdrops up and whiten 19th
January: crocus in flower on 31st
February: Nettles several inches high on 5th; willow blossoming; apricots in flower and hawthorn budding on the 16th. Wild daffodil in flower on 20th. Pastures as green as in May.

Boston
December: Roses and pinks were in flower in the open air on the 15th and strawberries were gathered in a garden at Louth.
January: Remarkably mild weather
February: Limes, elms and other forest trees in being in full bud
Derby
January: The fields and gardens having the more appearance of April than January. The proximate cause of the warmth of the season arises, no doubt, by the prevalence of southerly winds.

Aberdeen
December: Mild but wet tempestuous month
January: A remarkably mild month, no snow except a few flakes on 25th, no severe frosts. Grass growing as if in March or April, scarcely two hours' sunshine a day on average.. Whin in bloom all month.
February: A month of fine, mild dry weather except last 4 days were stormy.
Lochbroom
February: Trees and bushes never seemed so green.

Ballater
February: Up to last week, vegetation was making alarming progress for season.

Some station figures

Camden Town
December
Rain: 5.12"
Highest max: 58.2F 
1 air frost

January
Rain: 2.76"
Highest max: 56.3F
6 air frosts
February
Rain: 2.48"
Highest max: 60.8F
4 air frosts

Manchester
December
Rain: 8.12"
Highest max: 55.3F
2 air frosts

January
Rain: 2.69"
Highest max: 54.0F
1 air frost

February
Rain: 4.44"
Highest max: 61.8F
1 air frost
Barnstaple
December
Rain: 6.78"
Highest max: 59.5F
0 air frosts

January
Rain: 4.69"
Highest max: 56.0F
2 air frosts

February
Rain: 4.35"
Highest max: 62.0F
0 air frosts

Waterford
December
Rain: 9.81"
Highest max: 58.0F
0 air frosts
January
Rain: 2.69"
Highest max: 54.0F
7 air frosts

February
Rain: 2.34"
Highest max: 54.0F
1 air frost

Llandudno

December
Rain: 8.22"
Highest max: 62.6F
0 air frosts

January
Rain: 4.12"
Highest max: 54.6F
0 air frosts

February
Rain: 3.43"
Highest max: 58.0F
0 air frosts

 

Camden Square mean

3rd- 11th February 1869 : 10.1C

That is impressive that last figure, an equivalent would be something like February 1998.

Maxima at Camden Square 1st-17th February 1869

1st. 12.8C
2nd. 9.6C
3rd. 12.8C
4th. 14.0C
5th. 16.0C
6th. 14.3C
7th. 12.1C
8th. 12.2C
9th. 10.4C
10th. 13.2C
11th. 13.6C
12th. 10.4C
13th. 9.3C
14th. 10.3C
15th. 9.6C
16th. 11.3C
17th. 12.0C

[hillbilly]

similar to this winter then !

 

[damianslaw]

Proof we did see very mild winters in days of yonder, in an era without 'global warming' - quite a remarkable season that one. What happened in Spring 1869?

[Weather-history]

18 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

Proof we did see very mild winters in days of yonder, in an era without 'global warming' - quite a remarkable season that one. What happened in Spring 1869?

Really topsy turvy.

March was cold :3.8

April was very mild: 10.1

May was chilly with 9.6

May colder than April.

[damianslaw]

Mmm interesting.. suggesting plenty of northerly/easterly airstreams in March..

[Law of averages!!]

Xcellent post by ' weather history ' btw… very detailed and informative 

[Nouska]

11 minutes ago, Nouska said:

If there had been weather forums and models back in Feb 1869...the toys and towels would have been thrown very angrily!

 

 

 

1 hour ago, damianslaw said:

Mmm interesting.. suggesting plenty of northerly/easterly airstreams in March..

The March reanalysis.   

Source of charts      http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/cgi-bin/data/composites/plot20thc.day.v2.pl

[Weather-history]

150 years ago

[Roger J Smith]

As you know, it was the mildest winter of the 360 years in the CET records. Dec was 7.2, tied 12th warmest, Jan was 5.6 which was tied 33rd warmest and Feb was 7.5, 2nd warmest. However, the winter of 2013-2014 came close to matching that at the lower end -- Dec 2013 was ranked tied 35th while January was tied 30th and February tied 31st. 

The summer of 1976 had three months that beat the performance of winter 1868-69 though, both June and July were 4th warmest on record and August was tied 12th warmest. The summer of 1826 also beat winter 1868-69 for "ranks all better than x" with tied 28th (July) being its least warm ranking. June was 3rd and August was tied 12th.

The best spring in terms of staying above a given rank was 1893 which managed tied 38th for March, tied 6th for April and tied 20th for May. 

And the best autumns in this regard include three that outdid winter 1868-69 for staying above 33rd, these were 2011 and 2014 (both had tied 19th in September as their least extreme ranking) and 2006 with 24th (for November).

Hope I didn't confuse readers here, I was thinking, "what do you call the least extreme, a high rank or a low rank?" ... could not decide, to my mind, a "high ranking warm month" would be 1st rather than 33rd. So I settled on "least extreme" as my wording.

Since I had this file open, I could mention that the "all colder than" measurement would be winter 1683-84 where December was tied 11th coldest, January 2nd and February 6th coldest. For spring, the coldest set was in 1887 where all three months were at least (tied) 32nd coldest, then for a dire summer we go to 1725 (worse than 1816 or 1912) which managed to stay top ten coldest (9th June, 7th July, 4th August). The autumn candidate is 1786 where September tied 28th coldest, October 18th and November 8th. 

By the way, if anyone from Hadley looks in, your current version of the monthly ranking table (CET) has a glitch -- there is a phantom 0.0 added for each month with a ranking. This alters the rankings at the cold end of the table (and gets into the action of the winter months). Here's the link, I have tried to get my rankings accurate after removing those from consideration. 

http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadcet/mly_cet_mean_sort.txt