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picture of Bournemouth Beach, - courtesy of Ian
Britton from Freefoto.com. |
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The Central England Temperature (CET) series is one of the most
reliable and longest standing records of temperature in the world.
The Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research,
based in Exeter, has today released figures showing that the
recent warm weather has swept away previous records.
On the night of 3-4 February, the CET minimum temperature was
11.2 degrees C, beating the previous February figure of 10.3
degrees C. This series goes back to 1878. The CET for 4 February, reveals a mean temperature of 12.5 degrees
C, beating the previous February record of 12.0 degrees C from
1960. This series goes back to 1772. It is particularly remarkable that these records has been broken
so early in the month. Generally, temperatures across central
and southern parts of the UK were around 8 degrees C above normal
on 4 February 2004. The main reason for this exceptionally warm weather across southern
Britain is the tropical source of the air - it has come from
across the Atlantic Ocean, which is unusually warm for February.
Figures show sea-surface temperatures around 2-3 degrees C above
normal. David
Parker, Senior Climate Scientist at the Hadley Centre says: "The natural variations of weather patterns often show
marked departures from normal. But, because recent studies have
shown that most of the global warming observed over the last
50 years is attributed to human influences, it is not unreasonable
to conclude that human behaviour has played a significant part
in the figures released today".
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