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Wow, I'm shocked it's that few. Only 200 miles north of there we had 40+ days of snow cover last year and loads of ice days. If it wasn't for the UHI effect I bet that site would get at least the 25 frosts somebody else said. And none at all in November, really? Where did you get that data from as I'd be interested to read it?
I lived for two years in center city London...and that seems like a bit if a streach to me. Granted two yeas is a short time, and I might have experinced two very cold winters...but I can remember many mornings (like 30 ) the min/max we had near the window showed nightime temps under 0 C. It is a bit unfair to use the most urban areas because of the urban heat Isl effect. The outlaying areas around London have many more nights below freezing than 30 (more like 50).
That's like saying there is only 45 days with freeze around Central Park (NYC)...when the Airport has 90 days. Not a real fair representation.
Interesting I would have expected 2-3x more frosts from the lows. Maybe I had assumed a much higher temperature spread than London has. For example, our average low was 40F so far this month and had about 5 frosts so far this month.
No, the temperatures don't vary that much. Anything more than 4C or 7F away from the average either way is a little unusual. It's like that most places in this country.
I posted the data from Heathrow which records 25 frost days. The average low in November at London Weather Centre is 7C though so frosts aren't expected.
Another good site is CLIMATE London Weather Centre - Weather which has data back to 1992 (when the London Weather Centre became operational), and from 1948-1957, 1973-present for Heathrow, plus many other UK and world locations.
I lived for two years in center city London...and that seems like a bit if a streach to me. Granted two yeas is a short time, and I might have experinced two very cold winters...but I can remember many mornings (like 30 ) the min/max we had near the window showed nightime temps under 0 C. It is a bit unfair to use the most urban areas because of the urban heat Isl effect. The outlaying areas around London have many more nights below freezing than 30 (more like 50).
That's like saying there is only 45 days with freeze around Central Park (NYC)...when the Airport has 90 days. Not a real fair representation.
I think (correct me if I'm wrong, anybody) that LWC doesn't count as an official station for that reason and because it's not exposed enough or something. 90 days of frost at NYC airport when you have all those months of hot sunny weather? Wish we had a proper four season climate...
I lived for two years in center city London...and that seems like a bit if a streach to me. Granted two yeas is a short time, and I might have experinced two very cold winters...but I can remember many mornings (like 30 ) the min/max we had near the window showed nightime temps under 0 C. It is a bit unfair to use the most urban areas because of the urban heat Isl effect. The outlaying areas around London have many more nights below freezing than 30 (more like 50).
That's like saying there is only 45 days with freeze around Central Park (NYC)...when the Airport has 90 days. Not a real fair representation.
The past 2 winters have been exceptionally cold by London standards. 2008/09 was the coldest since 1986/87, then 2009/10 was the coldest since 1978/79.
I think it also has to do with which time period you are using. According to the climate robot on Weather Online UK site, Vancouver averaged 31.3 days of frost between December 2000 and January 2008, but the generally accepted average for Environment Canada is 46 days. I think this probably has to do with the fact that Environment Canada uses data that started back in the 70s and 80s and winters have gotten slightly warmer since then. I imagine the varying discrepancies on different websites about the number of frost days for London has to do with the same thing - different time periods used as well as of course location of the weather station in the city.
Heathrow averaged 25 frost days between 1982-present, LWC averaged 7 between 2001-2010. LWC started recording in 1992 so a more complete picture will be found on the tutiempo site (though you'll have to work it out manually).
The Greenwich weather station averaged 29.1 frost days for the period 1971-2000, though it closed down in 2004.
That's like saying there is only 45 days with freeze around Central Park (NYC)...when the Airport has 90 days. Not a real fair representation.
NYC actually doesn't have a huge difference in number of frost days in the center city compared to the airport. Central Park has 81, JFK Airport 76, LaGuardia Airport has 70. (Central Park's data goes back to 1876, when NYC was slightly colder, while the airports only go back to 1949, so that might explain why it's the reverse of what you'd expect) Both the airport are also right on the water and in densely built up areas, so they still might get the heat island effect. Probably being closer to water is the biggest effect, since if you go east of the city (and out of the heat island but more surrounded by water) you get very slightly less frost days.
You should be happy that you live a place with more comfortable and less extreme temperatures.
Btw, NYC central park gets 22 "ice days" and 15 days with maxes > 90°F (32°C) while JFK Airport gets 18 "ice days" and 10 days with maxes > 90°F.
NYC actually doesn't have a huge difference in number of frost days in the center city compared to the airport. Central Park has 81, JFK Airport 76, LaGuardia Airport has 70. (Central Park's data goes back to 1876, when NYC was slightly colder, while the airports only go back to 1949, so that might explain why it's the reverse of what you'd expect) Both the airport are also right on the water and in densely built up areas, so they still might get the heat island effect. Probably being closer to water is the biggest effect, since if you go east of the city (and out of the heat island but more surrounded by water) you get very slightly less frost days.
You should be happy that you live a place with more comfortable and less extreme temperatures.
Btw, NYC central park gets 22 "ice days" and 15 days with maxes > 90°F (32°C) while JFK Airport gets 18 "ice days" and 10 days with maxes > 90°F.
What's funny is because this July's average high was above 90 F lol. I wonder what LaGuardia's "average" stats are.
Oh and no frost here, today it was in the 60's before the sun came up and made it to 77.
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