Central England temperature

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The Central England Temperature (CET) record was originally published by Professor Gordon Manley in 1953 and subsequently extended and updated in 1974, following many decades of painstaking work. The monthly mean surface air temperatures, for the Midlands region of England, are given (in degrees Celsius) from the year 1659 to the present.

This record represents the longest accurate series of monthly temperature observations in existence. It is an extremely valuable dataset for meteorologists and climate scientists. It is monthly from 1659, and a daily version has been produced from 1772. The monthly means from November 1722 onwards are given to a precision of 0.1°C. The earliest years of the series, from 1659 to October 1722 inclusive, for the most part only have monthly means given to the nearest degree or half a degree, though there is a small 'window' of 0.1 degree precision from 1699 to 1706 inclusive. This reflects the number, accuracy, reliability and geographical spread of the temperature records that were available for the years in question.

For recent years there are two versions of the series: the "official" version maintained by the Hadley Centre, and a version maintained by Philip Eden which he claims to be more consistent with the series as originally compiled by Manley. [1]

[edit] Extrema

The hottest years in the sequence were 1990 and 1999, both at a mean 10.63 °C, though 2006 is likely to prove hotter still.^[1]
The coldest year was 1740 at a mean 6.84 °C.
July 2006 was the hottest month recorded in the CET series.
September 2006 was the hottest September recorded in the CET series.
May to September 2006 was the hottest extended summer recorded in the CET series.