The Weather in Durham, North East England
April 1917 – Perishingly cold at Durham Towards the end of World War 1, with fighting still going on in the trenches, April 1917 was quite extraordinary and was the coldest April recorded at Durham. The mean temperature for the month was 4.4C, which is -3.9C when compared to the
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The Great Snowstorm of 1888: A Winter Catastrophe in Durham One of the most remarkable weather events in the history of County Durham was the Great Snowstorm of 1888. This severe winter storm left an indelible mark on the region, with its impact resonating for years to come. From March
Full ArticleThe North East region of the UK still holds a few daily low temperature records. Most are held by Scottish border stations, but these are the UK records for the dates below set in North East England. January 5th (1941) Houghall -21.1 degC (Durham University Observatory -13.3 degC) February 26th
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Two amazing photos of the frozen River Wear in Durham. The first, credited to Matthew Avery and Helen Avery is of the Cathedral across the frozen river. Although Helen originally thought it was from 1983, it’s almost certainly from a year earlier in the winter of 1981/82. December 1981 and
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During the winter of 1983-84, there was a very snowy cold spell in the last week of January 1984. Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North of England were affected. Here’s a nice couple of black and white photos of the Fulling Mill and Cathedral taken by Craig Oliphant, who has
Full ArticleFebruary 1986 (who remembers that one then?) was one of the coldest Februaries ever recorded in modern times. Trevor Harley, in his famous weather summaries pages, describes February 1986 thus: “February 1986. Extremely cold (-1.1C CET), with frequent light snowfalls. The second coldest February of the 20th century (after 1947),
Full ArticleThe harsh realities of the brutal winter of 1946-47 are chronicled here in a writeup of The Time Traveller clipped from the Northern Echo some time in the 1980s The churches worry about war-devastated Germany, but most people say that Britain has enough to do in feeding herself. Rationing is
Full ArticleI was rooting about in the loft the other day and came across an old logbook of mine from when I lived in Ferryhill. It covered the period of late 1990 and early 1991. Immediately I took interest because there was a memorable period of heavy snowfall in February 1991.
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This is archived content that used to be on the Met Office website, but isn’t anymore so I decided to resurrect it for posterity, adding my own comments and adaptions. It’s a page to refer to when people talk about the harsh winters of 1946-47 and 1962-63, the two UK
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The article was produced following a bizarre weather event in July 1968. The month was a very active one for thunderstorms and featured one of the greatest falls of Saharan dust in the UK in recent times. From Trevor Harley’s Weather website: July 1968 Generally dull, cool, and wet, especially
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