My observations cover the period from 1984. Meteorologically, the data for the four seasons covers complete months, e.g. Spring includes data for March, April and May and Summer covers the months of June, July, and August. The seasons of Autumn and Winter are covered in the same way, statistically. Below are some general comments on the four seasons.
SPRING
The early and mid-eighties gave us a spring season much cooler than has been experienced in later years. From 1987 the mean for these three months has produced a gradual rising trend. The only exception to this picture is the very cold spring of 1996 and very recently the second coldest spring of 2013. This observation applies to both the maximum and minimum figures. The springs of 2007 and 2011 were exceptionally warm.
SUMMER
The mean for the summer statistics is again a rising trend that started in the mid-eighties but petered out after 2006. This observation is principally due to the rise in the minimum values whereas the trend for the maximum temperatures is approximately level. The summer periods from 2007 to 2011 were significantly cooler, however, the summers of 2013 and 2014 were slightly above average. The warmest summers were in 1995, 2003 and 2006, respectively.
AUTUMN
The Autumn seasons in the eighties were relatively similar but followed by the exceptionally cool years of 1992 and 1993. Since this time there has been a slowly rising trend, except for 2003, most marked by the increase in maximum values. The year of 2006 is noted for a very warm Autumn. Recent autumn seasons have varied widely, up to 2.5C.
WINTER
Since the very cold winters of 1984-1986, the trend is for little overall change. However, this comment masks the cold winters of 1990, 1995 and more recently those from 2008-2010, 2009 in particular was the coldest I have recorded. Recent years have brought milder winters.
