GLOBAL WARMING/ LOCAL WARMING

Britain's senior Met Men recently met to examine what is happening to Britain's weather.

Globally, there seems little doubt that warming continues, but there are widely differing rates going on across the globe. The Arctic& Antarctic seem to be warming the fastest & permanent ice seems to be melting & shrinking at an alarming rate.

It was always made clear, certainly with regard to warming in Britain, that it would not be a simple affair. It was never going to be a case that the passing of each year would bring ever higher temperatures, with each month experiencing higher than average values. Met Men even predicted the occasional severe winter could be expected.

I thought I would take a look at just what's been going on temperature-wise in Pitlochry in recent years & in so doing looked back at the last 70 months, to see how they divided between normal, warm or cold in relation to long-term averages. I defined "normal " as less than a 1.0 degree departure from the 30year average. A month was considered "warm" if it were 1.0 degree or more  above the average & "cold"if it were 1.0 degree or more below the average.

The results were thus--in respect of the last 70 MONTHS.
THERE WERE 43 NEAR NORMAL (61.4%).   12 WERE WARMER THAN NORMAL (17.1%), LEAVING 15 COLDER(21.4%)

No seasonal concentrations were found, but 13 out of the 15 cold months have occurred since the start of 2010 & there are still 7 months to reckon with in 2013.

CONCLUSION---There is no evidence of overall warming taking place at the present time in the local area.

I hope to take a look at monthly rainfall trends later in the year.    Barry 23/06/13