Local Forecasts, History & Records
Temperature Overall, June was warmer than average, but there was a very cool wet spell in the first half of the month. The mean max was +1.1 degC above normal and the mean min +2.0 degC above. Between the 3rd and 12th, the maximum temperature was only 16.1 degC (9th) and fell to as low as 5.5 degC on the …
You’ll see much talk in the papers over the coming summer months of ‘heatwaves’. The daily rags describe any thing remotely warm as a ‘heatwave’, but is there a strict definition of a heatwave? This Met Office video sheds some light on it. A heatwave is an extended period of hot weather relative to the expected conditions of the area …
The Weather in Durham in May 2020. May 2020 continued the Spring theme in Durham, that it was very dry overall, after the first few days, but they yielded some heavy hail showers on May 3rd. This picture was taken in Darlington, about 18 miles to the south of Durham. The weather soon calmed down though and the overwhelming feature …
April 2020 was an extraordinary month in more senses than just Weather. By now, you’ve probably noticed that we’re still in lockdown in Durham (and the rest of the country). The confusion of the second half of March continued into the first part of April, but I got the feeling that people were gradually getting used to it. The weather had …
Just had this photo sent of the incredible sunset of 26th April 2020. The sun was setting under a shallow cloud cover and it produced this red sunset and double rainbow. The cloud produced the first measurable rain for 2 weeks, in what looks destined to be one of the driest Aprils on record in Durham. The driest April in …
We’re all locked up at home with Coronavirus at the moment in April 2020, but they let us out to get exercise, so we took the opportunity to go for a stroll in the Durham sunshine.
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 …
March 2020 came in like a lion, with strong winds continuing to batter the country due to the proximity of low pressure systems. This was pretty much continuing the theme of the winter, but at least the extreme wetness and flooding that we experienced in February 2020 abated. The month actually ended up being very dry when compared to the …
There was a very wild start to February, although it was relatively mild. Storm Ciara over the weekend of 8th/9th brought damaging gusts and flooding. The worst of it passed to the South of us, but there was major flooding in Yorkshire and winds gusted to 93mph in Wales. The River Wear in Durham rose dramatically during the morning of Sunday …
Snowfall, Winter 2019-20 Better late than never Well, after a winter composed almost entirely of wind, rain and relatively mild temperatures, the first snow arrived in Durham five days before the end of February. Amounts aren’t huge (2-3”), but at least it stopped the winter from being thrown on the ‘No snow’ pile. It’s melted rapidly though after turning to …
If you search for ‘Durham Weather’ in Google, you’ll likely get a mixture of results from the UK location and the one in the USA. In fact, it’s quite annoying and doubly so because optimising a website for traffic is difficult enough in the very competitive weather niche, but when there’s a competing site on the other side of the …
Ever wondered why your village was suddenly flooded by a thunderstorm the weather forecasters hadn’t mentioned? Or why they failed to warn you about the dense fog shrouding your home in the morning? The fact is that predicting the “big picture” of future conditions has got a lot better – Storm Dennis was spotted six days before it arrived. But …