I found myself in Aberdeen in December looking at an air source heat pump in a blizzard. I escaped from Aberdeen three hours before the airport was shut. The day after I left, the temperature plummeted to -12 deg C for two days and, yes, the heat pump coped perfectly because it was sized and specced with this weather in mind.
This weather has caused the gutter press to panic with idiots claiming we are entering an Ice Age, global warming is a myth, etc. Apparently, the Daily Mail contains lots of comment on the weather. I haven't actually seen this as I have never knowingly touched a copy of the Mail; I don't want its evilness rubbing off on me.
The whole point about global warming is that it is global; you can't measure the temperature in your garden and use this as evidence that the planet is warming or cooling or doing anything else. Apparently, 2010 was the warmest year for eons, but December was the coldest for 30 years. If anyone can remember May and June, it was roasting and never rained; I know I was out in the garden on garden leave, it was lovely.
January 2011 has been interesting. The weather for the last week has been +10 deg C in the south; this is uncharacteristically warm for the time of year. I think the weather is unpredictable as ever and haven't yet decided whether global warming or cooling is happening or not.
All I do know is that the cold weather focused a lot of minds on the cost of heating causing an increase in the number of people wanting to know about heat pumps. Added to this, the price of heating oil is 70p a litre and higher, meaning an oil boiler can cost more than twice as much to run as a heat pump.
Glory days... long may the weather remain unpredictable.