A simple function to load and process the CET data into a nice format for modelling

loadCET

## read in the CET data
`loadCET` <- function() {
    CET <- url("http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cetml1659on.dat")
    on.exit(close(CET))
    cet <- read.table(CET, sep = "", skip = 6, header = TRUE,
                      fill = TRUE, na.string = c(-99.99, -99.9))
    names(cet) <- c(month.abb, "Annual")
    ## remove last row of incomplete data
    cet <- cet[-nrow(cet), ] # FIXME: this removes the last row regardless
    ## get rid of the annual too - store for plotting
    rn <- as.numeric(rownames(cet))
    Years <- rn[1]:rn[length(rn)]
    cet <- cet[, -ncol(cet)]
    ## stack the data
    cet <- stack(cet)[,2:1]
    names(cet) <- c("Month","Temperature")
    ## add in Year and nMonth for numeric month and a proper Date class
    cet <- transform(cet,
                     Year = (Year <- rep(Years, times = 12)),
                     nMonth = rep(1:12, each = length(Years)))
    ## sort into temporal order
    cet <- cet[with(cet, order(Year, Month)), ]
    cet
}