Saturday, September 30, 2006
England's warmest/coldest months on record: By the end of today, a weather record which has stood since 1729 should have fallen. With an average temperature exceeding 16½°C, this month looks set to be the warmest September ever recorded in the UK. That's according to the official list of Monthly Mean Central England Temperatures - a meteorological dataset stretching back nearly 450 years. The table below shows the warmest and coldest months recorded across Central England since 1659. These are based on the average temperatures over an entire month, including overnight, which is why the highs may not look especially high and the lows may not look especially low. But they are. And the figures are highly illuminating. We've not broken a coldest monthly temperature record in the UK for more than 50 years, and the majority of these have stood for two centuries or more. But five of the warmest months on record have occurred in the last 12 years, and two of these in 2006. Global warming anybody?
| Month | Warmest on record | Coldest on record |
| January | 1916 (7.5°C) | 1795 (–3.1°C) |
| February | 1779 (7.9°C) | 1947 (–1.9°C) |
| March | 1957 (9.2°C) | 1674 (1.0°C) |
| April | 1865 (10.6°C) | 1837 (4.7°C) |
| May | 1833 (15.1°C) | 1698 (8.5°C) |
| June | 1846 (18.2°C) | 1675 (11.5°C) |
| July | 2006 (19.7°C) | 1816 (13.4°C) |
| August | 1995 (19.2°C) | 1912 (12.9°C) |
| September | 2006 (16.8°C) | 1807 (10.5°C) |
| October | 2001 (13.3°C) | 1740 (5.3°C) |
| November | 1994 (10.1°C) | 1782 (2.3°C) |
| December | 1934/1974 (8.1°C) | 1890 (–0.8°C) |
Update: Even after a slightly cooler end to the month, the final average temperature for September 2006 is an exceptionally mild 16.8°C (beating the record set in 1729 by 0.2°C).
• Central England Temperature (text file, 1659-2006)
• Philip Eden's climate page
• lengthy geekdebate on warmest months
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