6.0 to the 17th

2.2c above the 61 to 90 average

1.2c above the 91 to 20 average

If not for the double late penalty, this would have Magda running away with the lead. Even with it they would be 0.4°C ahead of Wallaw in second place.

Of late, like with the second half of January, we've mostly seen weather patterns that traditionally deliver chilly or cold weather to England, but with low pressure to the south/southwest proving so unusually deep as to shift the polar boundary toward Scotland. The implications for the CET have been immense, much to the detriment of those trying to estimate the CET using forecast model signals as guidance.

This has been a start to the year where predicting the general pattern across Europe is far more manageable than predicting the temperatures within a small portion of it. A situation that occurs quite often to be honest!

5.8 to the 18th

2.0c above the 61 to 90 average

1.0c above the 91 to 20 average

5.7 to the 19th

2.0c above the 61 to 90 average

0.9c above the 91 to 20 average

Looks like Kew and St James's Park weather stations are down again. Pathetic really two of the most important WS in the country not working properly. Shambles 

5.8 to the 20th

2.0c above the 61 to 90 average

1.0c above the 91 to 20 average

Could it pip 7 by month's end?

6.3 to the 22nd

2.5c above the 61 to 90 average

1.4c above the 91 to 20 average

6.4 to the 23rd

2.7c above the 61 to 90 average

1.5c above the 91 to 20 average

"The London St James Park Weather Station has been vandalised for the 3rd time recently. It will stay offline until more substantial fencing can be installed.

There are mains power issues at Kew Gardens, so data will remain sporadic until they are resolved."

6.7 to the 24th

2.9c above the 61 to 90 average

1.7c above the 91 to 20 average

6.9 to the 25th

3.1c above the 61 to 90 average

1.9c above the 91 to 20 average

I feel your pain! I'm not sure that I'll recover from this month's disastrous prediction - it looks like I'll be over 3c adrift on this month alone!

7.1 to 27th Feb

Everyone went too low and nearly everyone except Jemblow who went for 7.1 was way too low

so congrats to jemblow and better luck in March to everyone  else !

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_mean.html 

February 2026, a month which had a strong signal for a cold spell in the middle stages, didn't even come close to that and finished with the 15th highest CET on record.

Though to be fair to the models, the wider blocking pattern did come to pass, it was just shifted around 1000 miles north-eastward. Sounds like a lot at face value but it's hardly anything compared to the Atlantic-European sector.

On to the results - lots of movement as you'd expect this early in the year and more unusually some very large cumulative prediction errors too. To give you an idea Lanky led the May leader board last year with a cumulative error of just 1.12c

February 2026 Leader board

1 Magda                         1.53

2 Wallaw                         1.83

3 Sussex snow magnet   1.93

4. Jemblow                      1.99

5 GezM                            2.03

6 Caz                                2.55

7 Rick M                           2.63

8 WindyWillow                2.73

9 Snowshoe                     2.91

10 Bolty                              3.13

11Spring Sun Winter Dread 3.15

12 Domma                        3.2

13 Dickieboy68                 3.27

14 DingleRob                    3.53

15 Hungry Tiger                3.63

15  SaintSnow                    3.63

16 Lanky                            3.65

17 Ally Pally Snowman      3.83

18 redmoons                     3.93

18 Grandad                       3.93

18 Stormchaser                 3.93

19 Kendalian                     4.23

20 Scillydave                     4.43

Ah now that's a tricky one - Jemblow didn't enter a prediction for January and so I haven't entered them into the annual competition table - we often get people entering for the odd month.

However, Jemblow if you're reading this and you'd like me to then i can go back and calculate what you'd have received for a missed prediction in Jan and get you into the annual comp.

As there is also a prediction in for March from jemblow, I would just allocate a penalty value for Jan and add them to the table anyway

Good shout - table amended accordingly.