Here is my little analysis of the final results of the
Europe's Winter Temperature thread: (

)
Pantelleria Island, being a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean sea:
- had the least cold of the lowest minimums, with 5.2°C - which means that the temperature never got below a mild 5.2°C during the whole 2011/2012 winter;
- however it also had the least warm of the highest maximums, with only 17.8°C - which means that the temperature never got higher than 17.8°C (only);
=> thus, Pantelleria's station had the narrowest temperature range of the whole group, and this is certainly due to the thermal inertia caused by the fact that it's a small island lost in the middle of the sea and also caused by the orientation of the winds in the region.
The five French stations:
- did rather well in the minimums (despite having an historic cold wave, more intense than for the other stations), and that is shown in the mean minimums table with no French station in the bottom four;
- however, they were the coolest in average in the maximums, and that is shown in the mean maximums table, with all five stations in the bottom six (Menton doing a bit better than Pantelleria). This is due to the angle of incidence of solar radiation, which is far less important in the North of the Mediterranean region during the winter period. Nevertheless, these five stations can have pretty high maximums from time to time, letting them make an good appearance in the ranking (Menton, L'Ile-Rousse & Cap Béar managing to have temperatures of 19.5°C to 20.5°C, better than Palaiohora, Gibraltar, Tarifa and a few Portuguese stations).
Costa del Sol's stations:
- did extremely well both in the absolute minimums and in the absolute maximums, both in the average minimums and in the average maximums, making the region the great winner of this challenge.
Greek stations:
- could have done way better if there had been normal temperatures: indeed, the country wasn't hit by only one, but by several severe cold waves and despite this historic winter, they didn't do too bad all the same.
Portuguese stations:
- suffered by some very cool minimums, making a few of them appear in the bottom of the ranking in a few tables. I must say that I'm very surprised by these results because Sagres (for example) had, from memory, the least cold of the cold records of the whole continent (correct me if I'm wrong). And here, Sagres had straight out the second coldest temperature behind Cap Béar, with a cold negative temperature, probably a new absolute cold record.