OOPS!!! Global warming hits the UK...

So much for global warming! Four out of the last five winters have been COLDER than average

Over the last five years, only last winter saw the mercury rise above the 3.3C (38F) average - taken from 30 years of statistics from 1981.
Met Office says figures are 'part of normal weather patterns'

By Nick Mcdermott

Soaring gas prices are not the sole reason for our increasing heating bills - four out of the five past winters have been colder than average, the Met Office has revealed.

Today marks the start of spring in the meteorological calendar, with Met Office figures indicating the average temperature over the winter months was just 3.3C (38f).

With the exception of 2011/12, which was milder than the 30-year seasonal average of 3.7C (39f), every year since 2008 has been colder.

The figures are likely to be seized on by sceptics of man-made climate change, who claim that global warming has flatlined despite a large rise in greenhouse emissions in recent decades.

But Met Office officials suggested the recent crop of cold winters is part of normal weather patterns, which have previously been recorded in the 60s and 80s.

And looking further back, both 2006/07 and 2008/09 were two very mild winters with UK mean temperatures of 5.6C(42f) and 4.9C (41f) respectively.

Forecaster Helen Chivers said a cyclical phenomenon known as the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) could be contributing to the nippier seasons.

'This is the classic example of the variability that we can see in the British weather.

'If you look back past the last five years, then three out of the last seven winters were milder than average, while 2006/07 was the second warmest on record.

'The recent trend does suggest there are natural cycles that influence our weather, with a negative NAO also occurring in the 60s and 80s and resulting in colder winters.'

The last winter was a season of 'two halves', with more rain falling in December than in January and February combined.

Read more here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2286041/So-global-warming-4-5-winters-COLDER-average-reveals-Met-Office.html#ixzz2MErCiqlR