2009 and 2011 were both warmer than 2008.

“slightly “warmer” period eg. 1949 & 1945.”

from the Met Office data, the average UK temperature in the 1940s was 8.60°C. The average temperatures for the 2000s was 9.22C. The 2000s are the warmest decade in the UK temperature record, and every decade since the 1960s has been warmer than the one preceding it. Your claim that “The climate has not changed in the UK at all” is not supported by the data.

“Last year in northern Italy spring was nearly one month later than normal. I would be interested to know if there is any long term trend although I don’t know how you would define spring to measure it.”

The timings of the seasons have been quite well studied. The 2007 IPCC report summarises the evidence in that regard as follows: Although phenological network studies differ with regard to regions, species, events observed and applied methods, their data show a clear temperature-driven extension of the growing season by up to 2 weeks in the second half of the 20th century in mid- and high northern latitudes, mainly due to an earlier spring, but partly due also to a later autumn”

http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg2/en/ch1s1-3-5-1.html

Of course the Met Office are correct and hold the official statistics ( I am just an amateur). However, I am grateful to you for giving the link to their UK ranking table. I would be interested to know exactly how they calculate their ‘UK average”. The table shows a wide spread in years but there is indeed a trend for the years between 1997 to 2008 to be warmer in the season rankings. There was also another slightly “warmer” period eg. 1949 & 1945. Recently though 2010 and 2012 seem more “normal”.

The onset of spring varies from year to year. Last year in northern Italy spring was nearly one month later than normal. I would be interested to know if there is any long term trend although I don’t know how you would define spring to measure it.

Martin : I was not actually trying to make any propaganda about snow, I was merely nothing how much kids love it, and long may they do so.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/datasets/Tmean/ranked/UK.txt

According to the Met Office UK average temperature dataset, the winters of 1951, 1956, 1963, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1986 and 2010 were all colder than the winter of 2011.

Meanwhile, 2011 was the second hottest year overall. Here are the ten warmest years measured in the UK: 2006 (warmest), 2011, 2007, 2003, 2004, 2002, 2005, 1990, 1997, 1949.

Once again your beliefs are not supported by the evidence.