January Weather

January Weather in Durham UK

January 2021 Weather Report for Durham – Wet and Cold

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Durham Cathedral in the snow, January 2021

January 2021 – A cold, wet month at Durham With Storm Christoph a noteable 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 photos can be seen here. The month averaged only 2.3 degC, which is the coldest January in Durham since 2010. Not unusually for a cold month, it had 13 air frosts recorded, with the lowest temperature of -4.2 degC on the 9th January. … [Read more]

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

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Snow on the roof of Durham Cathedral

The 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 in some of the hillier parts of County Durham snow depths of 6-10 inches were common, especially high ground to the south of the region. Here are some photographs of my own and taken by friends on social media today. Enjoy!   … [Read more]

The last 5 Januarys in the UK according to Trevor Harley

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2016 Mild and wet. The first week was extremely unsettled leading to extraordinarily high rainfall totals in east Scotland, with widespread severe flooding. The second week was much colder, with an incursion of Arctic air. It was then mostly unsettled and mild. The highest temperature of the month was 16.5C at Achnagart (Highland) on the 24th, and the lowest temperature was -12.4C at Kinbrace on the morning of the 19th. The rainfall total was 152% of average, making it the fourth wettest January on record; it was the second wettest calendar month of all in east Scotland – just beaten … [Read more]

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

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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 the first half of January 1982 were very severe, particularly 8th-27th December 1981 and 6th-16th January 1982, so this picture was most likely taken in one of these periods (probably December 1981). The blue tint on the photograph makes it look very cold indeed. Here’s a comment from James Clark … [Read more]

Ice in the River Wear, January 1984

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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 very kindly given his permission to publish. Ice is just starting to form in the still water above the weir. The Bonacina/O’Hara snowfall analysis says “Jan, very snowy in Scotland. 13th-23rd Jan., Scotland, N. Ireland and northern England. Considerable drifting on hills. 21-23rd Jan., northern England, C. Highlands, Scotland 2ft … [Read more]

January 2020 weather – Mild and Dry

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The recent trend has been that winter months 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 Gilesgate, Durham, with 13.6mm of rain recorded, the wettest day since 19th November last year. It was very mild and wild on the 11th, and the strong winds continued until the 13th/14th as a depression passed through, with some snowfall in Scotland … [Read more]

What range of weather to expect in January in Durham

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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 : 3.8 degC. (Max 6.6, Min 0.9) Warmest : 6.8 degC in 1916. Coldest : -2.1 degC in 1881. Abs Max Temp : 16.7 degC on 9th, 1888. Absolute Min Temp : -17.2 degC on 17th, 1881. Mean Rainfall : … [Read more]

Winter Chills : The Great Winters of 1947 and 1963 in the UK

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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 winters that are used as benchmarks for how bad winter can get. Rarely in the UK – or anywhere, for that matter – is a train completely buried in snow. But that’s exactly what happened on Dartmoor in March 1891 and in northern Scotland in January 1978. The winters that … [Read more]

Monthly Report – January 2019

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The New Year opened much the same as the old one ended, with dry benign weather and extraordinarily persistent High Pressure for the first half of the month. The high was a cloudy one, so temperatures stayed above freezing, with no fog or frost. It’s very unusual for a January to have such a high average pressure and not be cold and frosty. Alarmist headlines were again plentiful in the tabloids, with lots of doom laden promises of snow-bombs and Polar vortices, the writers not really having a ‘scooby’ what they were writing about. All done to generate paper sales. … [Read more]