Anyone who needs cheering up can follow the escapades of a BBC experiment.

'So, in what is arguably an unfair test of a car designed mostly for short-distance motoring, the BBC decided to try to drive an electric Mini the 484 miles (778km) from London to Edinburgh.'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12138420

It is, unexpectedly, honest reporting and is totally winding the greens up on the comments page.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/01/electric_car_challenge.html#comments

News is never dull: keep an eye on the rescue of here:
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2011/01/little-local-difficulty.html

and then remind yourself how sea surface temperatures are shaping up this year
http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/
(Choose Sea Surface in the temperature dropdown and then redraw the graph.)

And the MET get laid into again.

http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/01/10/lawrence-solomon-when-wwf-is-put-in-charge-of-the-weather/

BBC serve Govt with FOI about Met Office Cold Winter warning.
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2011/01/worrying.html

Interesting.

Can't imagine the BBC taking anything other than an anti-Govt/pro-MET office line on this. But could spell trouble for Chris Huhne though if it turns out his office was the one issuing the 'gag'.

On BBC Look North on friday I reported that during the recent intense cold weather, it's been our traditional coal and gas fired power stations that have been working flat out to keep our homes and businesses warm.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulhudson/2011/01/coal-takes-the-strainagain.shtml

Good piece by BBC weather presenter

In case anyone missed it...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xhz90/Horizon_20102011_What_is_One_Degree/

The US Supreme Court has chucked out a suit trying to claim damages against industry for global warming.

U.S. Supreme Court Will Not Hear Bogus Global Warming Case

Newsnight looks at the eco terrorist plot to shut down Ratcliffe power station and the bungled police effort to arrest them, tonight.

I've put the updated watts up article here.
http://www.realclimategate.org/2011/01/the-met-office-secret-predictions-and-the-political-implications/

Record Heat Hit Northeast U.S. in 2010

Five cities in the northeastern United States broke their own record of all-time hottest year in 2010, according to a report out Wednesday (Jan. 5).
For Boston, 2010 had the highest average temperature since records began being kept in 1872, when The Great Fire almost wiped the city off the map. The other four cities were: Providence, R.I.; Hartford, Conn.; Concord, N.H.; and Caribou, Maine.
The findings come from statistics released by the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University.
The researchers looked at temperature data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at various sites in cities across the northeastern United States.

Data collected in cities by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seems to say it all really. I don’t suppose they thought about comparing the recorded temperatures in more rural locations around those record breaking cities just for a balanced approach.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/record-heat-northeast-cities-2010-110106.html