Earlier in the Season I posted up that for Scotland as a whole, the December and January combination was the coldest such combination since Scotland wide records begun in 1914.

As 1st March is the official start of the meteorological spring in the UK and is used as such for climate data the provisional Scotland wide figures are now available for winter 2009/10.

Winter 2009/10 has been the coldest winter in Scotland since 1962/63 and surpasses 1979.

The provisional average temperature for the whole of Scotland for Dec, Jan and Feb 2009/10 is +0.24°c, the 1971/91 average is +2.7°c and the provisional figure is just +0.08°c above 62/63.

Following winter 2008/09 the Met Office had the following to say:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2009/pr20090225.html

“The cold weather has been in contrast to the run of very mild winter temperatures that have been recorded over recent years.

Natural variability of climate means that the UK will continue to see spells of colder weather at times. Although, if it had not been for the general warming already observed in global temperatures, this winter may well have been even colder.

Peter Stott, Climate Scientist at the Met Office, said: “Despite the cold winter this year, the trend to milder and wetter winters is expected to continue, with snow and frost becoming less of a feature in the future.

The famously cold winter of 1962/63 is now expected to occur about once every 1,000 years or more, compared with approximately every 100 to 200 years before 1850.”