2011 is 2nd warmest year on record in the UK

[The_Global_Warmer]

The mean temperature so far this month has been 4.7 degrees Celsius (40.5 degrees Fahrenheit), 0.5 above the 1971-2000 average, a far cry from 2010, when temperatures were 5 degrees below average to notch up the coldest December on record.

This year marked a return to a trend of warmer than average annual temperatures, the Met Office said, noting that all the UK's top seven warmest years have happened in the last decade. The warmest was 2006.

It was the warmest April and Spring on record in 2011, and the second warmest Autumn on record.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre7bt0n4-us-britain-weather/

[Jonger]

From coldest to warmest.... I'm sure this had nothing to do with air patterns... Probably more methane released this year. I did really have a mexican food indulgance this year.

[The_Global_Warmer]

From coldest to warmest.... I'm sure this had nothing to do with air patterns... Probably more methane released this year. I did really have a mexican food indulgance this year.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2080355/UK-weather-2011-2nd-warmest-year-record-hottest-spring.html

I can sense your sarcasm and I totally agree with you. That was a great place to inject it to make a point. You are right, wind patterns do play a major role.

The average temperature for the UK in 2011 was nearly 9.73C - compared to the long term average of just 8.59C.

Records dating back to 1910 show the year 2006 was only slightly warmer than 2011 with an average of 9.73C.

Seven of the top 10 warmest years have occurred in the last decade.

So after 101 years of record keeping on that little British Island starting in 2001, 7 of 10 years turn out to be in the top 10 warmest. Now with 2011 that is 8 of 11. What are the stastitical odds that would occur solely because of wind patterns with 101 data points, probably highly unlikely without a new causality. Well, we have already established all of the 11 year, 30 year, 60 year fluctuations.

We can see natural variability laid on top of the overall warming trend that has accelerated during the highest emmisions, remember, the UK is closer to the arctic than the USA.

'It has been a rather topsy turvy year and very different to last year,' said Tom Morgan, a forecaster for the Met Office.

'We had the warmest April on record, followed by a rather disappointing summer where temperatures were close to average and there was lots of rain.

'Then in the autumn we had the warmest October day since records began and have then had a November which was three degrees above average.'

The coldest day in 2011 was January 8, when temperatures dipped to minus 13C in Altnaharra in Scotland.

So just like the Globe and USA all of the warmest years are in recent times during the highest emissions. And your right, 2010 which is one of the warmest years globally on record was very cold for the UK. The coldest since 1986. Wind patterns, record blocking caused the 12th coldest UK winter, during the end of a solar min, during a -PDO. during one of the highest +AMO's on record. It shows there is natural variability with an underlying warming trend that is accelerating.