January 2025 Weather in Durham – Cold first half, with snow

A little late this month, but here are the numbers for January 2025 in Durham. It was the coldest January since January 2021 in Durham. Mean temperature was about 1.5 degC below the long term average. The spell from Jan 2nd-12th averaged just 0.1 degC. The 10th-11th was the coldest night nationally for 15 years, with -18.9 degC at Altnaharra …

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January 2024 Weather at Durham – An eventful month

January 2024. An eventful month. The month opened as a wild one, with Storm Henk on 2nd January bringing damaging winds. There was a cold northerly outbreak mid-month. There were frequent snow showers, particularly across northern and northeastern Scotland, but they also affected the south. The lowest temperture of the spell was -14.0 at Dalwhinnie on the morning of the …

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January 2021 Weather in Durham – Wet and Cold

Durham Cathedral in the snow, January 2021

January 2021 – A cold, wet month at Durham, With Storm Christoph a notable feature Temperature After the warmth of January 2020, this month proved to be the exact opposite. The month proved to be both wet and wintry, with an exceptional snowfall in the North East area on or around the 6th-8th of the month. Some photographs from snowy …

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Some photographs from snowy weather January 6th-8th 2021

Snow on the roof of Durham Cathedral

The Durham area of North East of England was taken a little by surprise on Friday morning, the 8th January 2021. An area of rain had approached from the North West and turned to snow after midnight. Some places received 8-10 hours of continuous snow. Depth increased dramatically with altitude. In Durham City we had only 2-3 inches of snow, but …

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Two photos of the frozen River Wear in Durham 1981/82 and 1895.

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 the first half of January 1982 were very severe, particularly …

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Ice in the River Wear in Durham January 1984

Fulling Mill in the snow 1984

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 very kindly given his permission to publish. Ice is just …

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January 2020 Weather in Durham – Very mild

a view across the river wear from pelaw wood, looking towards durham city and the cathedral in the distance

January 2020. Very mild. Anticyclonic for the first week and again from the middle of the month until the 26th. The month saw an intense anticyclone develop; London’s highest ever pressure of 1049.6 mbars was recorded at Heathrow on the 19th, and then 1050.5 was recorded at the Mumbles, Swansea, on the 20th. There were fewer frosts than usual and …

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January 2020 Weather in Durham – Mild and Dry

A red sunrise over Bishop Auckland

The recent trend has been that winter months in Durham have been on the dry side. January 2020 was very much in that vein. It was also very mild for first week. On the 8th/9th there was overnight snow in the High Pennines, although only rain fell elsewhere. This was heavy in places. This was actually the wettest day in …

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What range of weather to expect in January in Durham

NOAA North Atlantic Synoptics 17th January 1881

As Christmas is over for another year, and we’ve been disappointed by the lack of snow again, we start looking forward to the New Year. What’s sort of weather is normal for Durham in January? Well. looking at the means for Durham, and the extremes, we can see what range is ‘normal. Durham Weather Extremes since 1850 JANUARY Mean Temp …

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