UK - Met Office - "Virtually Certain" That Autumn 2006 Warmest In 300 Years - Guardian

[hatrack]

Environment campaigners today issued new warnings about the impact of climate change on Britain's wildlife as figures showed this autumn is almost certain to be the warmest on record. With only three days left until autumn officially ends, average UK temperatures for September, October and November look set to break the 12C mark for the first time.

The previous highest temperature for autumn in central England was 11.8C, set in 1731. A spokesman for the Met Office said it is "virtually certain" that this autumn will be the warmest for 300 years, and the forecast for the next few days is for further mild weather.

The last time a seasonal average temperature was broken was in summer 1976, the spokesman added. He said it is "possible" that 2006 could be the warmest year on record, despite the cold spring. "It needs to be a relatively warm December to make the record, but the long-range forecast is for the mild weather to continue," he said. "It is touch and go at this stage."

The current annual record for average temperatures is 10.63C, recorded in 1990 and 1999.

EDIT

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1958286,00.html

[Odin2005]

1. There's no snow on the ground here in Fargo.

The high temp has finally dropped into the 10s for the first time. Climatologists are prediciting a warm winter for around here.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Confirmed: warmest central England autumn temperature in 347 year history of records

The Met Office confirms that the autumn 2006 has been the warmest in the last 347 years across central parts of the UK.

Central England Temperature records dating back to 1659 are the longest instrumental temperature records in the world, and autumn 2006 has been warmer than any equivalent autumn since then. The provisional mean temperature this year was 12.6 °C. The previous highest figure for the equivalent period was 11.8 °C, recorded in 1730 and 1731.

The provisional UK-wide mean temperature for autumn was 11.3 °C, beating the previous record set in 2001 of 10.5 °C, in a temperature series that began in 1914.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2006/pr20061201.html

[fedsron2us]

3. Looks as though this is going to continue into December

as a screaming North Atlantic jet stream combined with high surface sea temperatures is sending a lot of very vigorous depressions towards Britain. The much over hyped UK drought of 2006 is fast drowning under the rain. London once tipped to be the next dustbowl currently sits at the end of a River Thames which has 9 flood watches along its length. To me it is the increased storm activity in winter and the increasing rarity of night time frosts over the past quarter century which have been the signs of global warming not the occasional summer heatwaves that have been so overplayed by the media.