Warning after 'too warm' weather

HAS Huddersfield's weather changed for ever?

That's the point being raised by local meteorologist Paul Stevens after yet another record-breaking month.

Temperatures in April were the warmest on record for the past 300 years.

And that followed other records over the past 12 months, as the town became sunnier and warmer.

Mr Stevens, of Salendine Nook, said: "All I hear when I talk to the people who live in Huddersfield these days is 'hasn't the weather changed?'

"They say: 'The seasons aren't the same any more; it's too warm for this time of year'.

"They remember when the snow would be at the top of walls for days."

He added: "Some of our older residents will remember the 1947 and 1963 winters and the younger ones the 1979 winter. These were much colder than the long-term average temperatures.

"There were persistent north and east winds and frequent snows as high pressure settled on the North-East of the UK for weeks on end.

"The 1947 was the snowiest winter of the last century. It snowed in May during the 1979 winter and frosts stayed for eight weeks in 1963.

"But in the last 20 years most of us barely remember a full week of snow. There have been only a few.

"So has the weather - or, more importantly, the climate - changed as the global forcing of temperature upwards picks up pace?.

"The Met Office announced only last week that the 12 months to the end of March this year was the warmest period since records began over 300 years ago.

"Every month recorded above-average temperatures and Huddersfield was no exception."

"Last month was the warmest April on record for England, at an average 11.3°C (53°F) when it should have been nearer 8.2°C (46°F).

"In Huddersfield the temperature average for April was 10.9°C (52°F). This is 3.5°C (38°F) above our long-term average.

"From the charts it is very clear just how warm some of the days were.

"This represents late spring temperatures in midwinter and early summer temperatures in early spring."

Mr Stevens said last month was also the driest April on record, with only 2mm of rain against an average 55mm.

He added: "Climate change is a fact of life. It's happening and we are beginning to experience the effects.

"No single weather event can be put down specifically to climate change. The weather was always been extreme at times before the Industrial Revolution. "

"What is interesting is the trend of extremes or variances from what we know as the 'normal weather'"' for the slopes of Pennines. The worrying point for me personally when I review the evidence from my own records is what was 'normal' a few years ago is not normal any more.

"The weather and its seasonal patterns seem to be slowly changing.

"We use the word normal - but what is normal?

"Some scientists still say that with the weather and climate there is no normal, just variability and that is normal

"That is true, but in the tens of thousands of years since the last Ice Age climate changes have taken equally long - not decades.

"So when you review yet another set of extremes for the last winter and spring in Huddersfield, maybe it's time to think what you can do individually to help reduce your carbon footprint and other emissions that are forcing up the Pennine temperature," said Mr Stevens.

* The wettest August on record was in 2005, when Milnsbridge was badly hit by floods

* The warmest September night ever recorded was in 2006

* The warmest October ever recorded was also in 2006

* Severe gales followed in January

* The 2006/07 winter was the third warmest on record

* Last month was the driest April in records going back nearly 100 years. It was also the warmest.