[article] January temp heading for near record.

mike65

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2002799,00.html

This January will be the second hottest on record for the UK after temperatures reached "ridiculously warm" heights, forecasters said today.

Met Office figures suggest what early cherry blossoms and wide-awake hedgehogs have already led us to suspect - this month has been much warmer than average.

Across the UK, temperatures this year have so far averaged 5.9C - 2.5C above the long-term norm for January, the Met Office said.

It has already predicted that 2007 will be the hottest ever year with a global average temperature of 14.5C, following last year's record-breaking year.

Article continues
[AD]
The mild weather leaves January just a fraction off the record 1916 average for the month of 6.3C.

The figures show that the balmy temperatures peaked at 15C in Aberdeenshire on January 12. This compares to the UK's January record of 18.3C, reached in both 1971 and 2003.

Barry Gromett, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said: "It's a notably warm month and follows a record-breaking autumn and a warm December."

Last year was in fact the warmest on record in the UK, with an average temperature of 9.7C - 1.1C above average.

Met Office figures show that in central England temperatures have been averaging 7.1C this month, lower than the average of 7.5C recorded in January 1916.

Mike.

Snowbie

Hottest,thats a extreme word to use.As always tabloids will exaggerate.It has been above avg ok but not too extreme and not surprised following on from recent January's as been mild.
Sure Febuary and March tend to be cooler Months lately.

mike65

Guardian is in the Berliner format!

Mike.

junkyard

It looks like I'll be buying an ice-cream van this summer.:D