Thursday, December 30, 2010

Last year the Met predicted 'warm, dry winter' as I recall

and the winter sucked. They predicted that this year, and

“Temperatures will be down again by Sunday, with nights below freezing and daytimes below average at 3C to 5C. Our outlook forecast to January 26 shows temperatures 2C or 3C below average, frost and ice likely and the highest chance of snow or sleet over the northern half of the UK.”

Although official weather records only go back to 1659, weather experts said the centuries from 1100 to 1500, dubbed the “Medieval warm period”, would not have produced winters as cold as today.

So 2011 could end up being the coldest winter of the last millennium.

2 comments:

markm said...

Note that they are using the Celsius scale, so "below zero" means barely freezing. -1C = 30F, which in Michigan is a warm spell from Dec-Feb. IIRC, 30F wasn't even particularly cold for winter in Stillwater, OK.

But when you haven't any central heating, and have taxed energy up to three times as much as it costs in the USA, it could be cold enough to whine about...

Firehand said...

From what I understand that's a big part of it; lots of the houses aren't that well insulated and/or drafty, and heating costs are nasty. And when you add the VAT on, adding insulation is horribly costly