5.5C please GW.

Well done for putting those figures on. Despite the amazing December we need a good mild February to break the record.

February 1869 had a CET of 7.5C.

That's quite a hard nut to crack.

5.8 please GW

A not particularly interesting 5.2*C please. Or is it? Think about the winter CET 

Hopefully also hiding some reasonable inter-month variation.

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

 Slightly relevant to this thread as winter ranked CETs are in question.

There's a quirk in the HAD CET which results in years from March to Nov having a zero at rank 1; meaning the coldest of each of these months is ranked at no. 2; as is the current coldest overall year (1740).

Now I've no doubt there's a reason for this but the way it's presented is very misleading.

The winter months have their zero value plugged in at the appropriate ranking position for a zero \C month. Again, I see the systematic approach to whatever led to this misleading data; but remember HAD CET is available fully in the public domain.

mean CET ranked coldest to warmest from 1659 to 2016
   sorted on 31/1/2016             units: Degrees C


rank    jan        feb        mar        apr        may        jun        jul        aug        sep        oct        nov        dec        year    rank
  1  -3.1 1795  -1.9 1947   0.0    0   0.0    0   0.0    0   0.0    0   0.0    0   0.0    0   0.0    0   0.0    0   0.0    0  -0.8 1890   0.00    0   1
  2  -3.0 1684  -1.8 1895   1.0 1674   4.7 1701   8.5 1698  11.5 1675  13.4 1816  12.9 1912  10.5 1674   5.3 1740   2.3 1782  -0.7 2010   6.86 1740   2
  3  -2.9 1814  -1.7 1855   1.2 1785   4.7 1837   8.6 1740  11.8 1909  13.5 1695  13.0 1694  10.5 1675   6.4 1817   2.8 1915  -0.5 1676   7.29 1695   3

5.15 for me this month please.

Can I have 5.3, please?

Thank you

David, Northallerton

5.3C please

5.3c

I'd like 3.9 please

4.5c please

Here We Go For Another Month......

Met Office Hadley                9.1c.         Anomaly        4.9c.    Provisional  to  the 1st.

Metcheck                            9.89c.       Anomaly        5.69c.

Netweather                       11.33c.       Anomaly        7.14c.

Cheadle Hulme Weather     11.2c          Anomaly        6.7c.

Clevedon Weather              10.6c.        Anomaly        5.3c.

Mount  Sorrel                     10.6c.        Anomaly        6.4c.

Peasedown St John             10.6c.        Anomaly        6.9c.

Hi

Sorry very late 6.2c please

Martin

The Dec-Jan temp. stats here Iin *C) are mind-boggling (anomalies in brackets as usual):

Mean Max 10.96 (+3.61)

Mean Min 6.35 (+4.75)

Mean 24h 8.66 (+4.19)

...albeit not as much as the Dec stats alone (anomalies of +5.29, +7.73 and 6.51 for the max, min and 24h respectively!).

Funnily enough it was the min temps that were the least above the LTA in Jan and this has muted the extremity of Dec's value somewhat. Still the 3rd highest Jan mean min going back to 2000 though, while the max was the second highest, indeed only the second Jan to exceed 9*C (and the sixth of any winter month).

It feels like the changing global climate has decided to focus its efforts on one UK winter after years of faffing about. El Nino doesn't explain much of the anomaly so far this winter at all. An unusually cold stratospheric vortex is probably a significant player, this actually being a consequence of increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the lower levels. 

Climate change doesn't explain it all though, with the unusual North Atlantic SST profile (huge area of colder than normal SSTs in the central to northern regions) a significant factor as well.

Still just about time to make a prediction for February. Deadline is 23:59 today.

Even if you did not make a prediction in January you can still take part in the annual competition as you are allowed to miss up to two predictions during the year.