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17 Jul 11 - A number of senior UK-based academics have announced that average temperatures during recent winters have been "markedly lower than the longer-term average," says this article by Mark Dunphy. The scientists published their findings, which follow one of the coldest winters in Ireland and Britain in more than 45 years, in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Using the Central England Temperature (CET) record, which dates back to mid-17th century, the research team found that “The mean CET for December, January and February for the recent relatively cold winters of 2008/09 and 2009/10 were 3.50C and 2.53C respectively. Whereas the mean value for the previous 20 winters had been 5.04C." "The cluster of lower winter temperatures in the UK during the last three years had raised questions about the probability of more similar, or even colder, winters occurring in the future,” said the UK scientists. The basis for their wintry forecast "is that relatively cold winters in the United Kingdom and Ireland are more common when solar activity is low," says Dunphy. "The trend of severe winter weather could be set to continue."
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