And a massive thanks from me for running this fantastic competition - it's one of the highlights on TWO and we all really appreciate the huge amount of work you must put into it.

Oh, and my big head just wants to add that I see my record low cumulative total still stands at 7.7c

Pity I've been in the bottom half of the table every year since 

Thanks everyone

The winning figure this year was the highest of any of the five years I have run the competition (I can't quite believe it has been that long). Lets see if in 2014 we can beat Martin's winning score from 2009.

Up to now the biggest errors have tended to occur in the winter months, notably January and December. The two years when the winning figure was less than 8C both saw only small errors in January. So it will be interesting to see how we fair this year.

The Met Office's December summary is now available. The mean temperature for the UK as a whole was 1.8C above average making it the warmest December since 1988. Highest temperature was 16.6C in Scotland. Fifth mildest December in Scotland since 1910.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/2013/december

And a massive thanks from me for running this fantastic competition - it's one of the highlights on TWO and we all really appreciate the huge amount of work you must put into it.

Huge thanks to GW for all your hard work.

The Met Office's December summary is now available. The mean temperature for the UK as a whole was 1.8C above average making it the warmest December since 1988. Highest temperature was 16.6C in Scotland. Fifth mildest December in Scotland since 1910.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/2013/december

It was indeed the 5th mildest since 1910 in my part of the country with the four milder Decembers being 1924, 1934, 1971 and 1988.

Not one of those Decembers was followed by decent wintry weather in January or February. 1988/89 had no lying snow at all during the winter months, 1924/25 a brief snowy interlude between 2nd and 6th Jan before a resumption of horrible conditions with a very wet snowless February and 1934/35 had only a 3-day snow event in the last week of January.

1971/72 is the real stinker and stands out as the worst winter of the century for me. Almost incessantly dull and wet with hardly any frost and only one shortlived snowfall between 30th Jan and 2nd Feb.

It really does seem highly probable that we are looking at an unprecedented 4th write-off winter in only 8 years

Oh, and my big head just wants to add that I see my record low cumulative total still stands at 7.7c

 

 

 

Pity I've been in the bottom half of the table every year since 

 

A belated thanks from me for all your work on this Simon. I am privileged to have been involved from the start. It was much easier to come in the Top 10 in 2009.