Weather News

Saturday 9^th January 2010

Today has seen the maximum snow fall depth record broken at this location. An average depth of 24cm has been recorded. Other parts of town such as Woodham Village near the golf course appear to have even more than that, perhaps a foot but I’m not going up there to stick a ruler in the snow! This page is not often updated, because of various reasons but the latest spell of weather is certainly noteworthy enough to make a record for posterity.

Not only have we got deep snow, we have now had snow cover for 24 consecutive days. This is pretty much unprecedented at least according to my memory. There has been deeper snow for example in 1979 and 1991, but no spell in my memory has seen snow last as long unbroken. You’d have to go back to 1963 long before I was born, to the winter called by John Kettley as a “1 in 1,000 years event” to find a certain event of longer snow cover – Durham was snow covered for the entireity of January and February that year. That will take some beating!

The cold has also been noteable, December 2009 (which included snow falling and lying on Christmas Eve and Day) had a mean temperature of 2.6ºC, despite a mild first half of the month, the coldest month recorded here in 6 years of collecting data, and around 2ºC colder than the average mean here (1.6º colder than the Durham 71-00 mean). The first 9 days of January have returned an average mean temperature of -1.5ºC, roughly 6 degrees below the average mean here and 5 degrees below the long term 71-00 Durham mean. The station cold temperature record has also fallen, with a value of -7.1º on the morning of the 8^th.

Sunday 15^th April 2007

Today saw the April temperature record fall by quite a margin, with a top temperature of 23.4ºC (74.1ºF). This beats the previous record, set in 2004, by 2.5ºC. So far April 2007 has been very warm, sunny and dry, with no rainfall measured at the time of writing.

This follows on from one of the mildest winters on record, certainly the mildest December, January, February period in my 4 years recording in Newton Aycliffe, which was also the most snowless winter in my living memory.

Friday 22^nd September 2006

A late heatwave has seen the station monthly record fall for September, with the temperature reaching 25.0ºC (77.0ºF) on the 21^st. Unusual for the temperature to climb so high, so late in the month. So far, September is also on course to be warmer than August! Again, a very unusual event. An Indian summer, after a remarkable June and July.

Review of the summer…….Summer 2006 will long be remembered for the very dry, very sunny and very warm June and July.

Whilst June was very much warmer than usual, and drier with the mean temperature 2.5ºC above normal, July was absolutely exceptional…..just 11mm of rain, which is a station low rainfall record.

A temperature of 30.3ºC (86.5ºF), another station record.

The mean temperature of 19.1ºC makes July 2006 the hottest month ever recorded. Nearly FOUR degrees above the 30 year Durham mean.

The mean maximum temperature was an absolutely staggering 24.8ºC (76.6ºF), which is FIVE celcius warmer than the 30 year Durham average maximum.

Twenty eight days recorded 20.0ºC or above, double the average.

Eighteen days recorded 25.0ºC or above, astonishing for this area.

The heatwave included 14 consecutive days that reached a high of 25.0ºC or more, with 3 of those days reaching 30.0ºC or more.

Sunshine records were smashed at stations across the North East, so not only was July the hottest month ever, but also the sunniest. The region experienced drought conditions, here the combined total rainfall for both June and July was 26mm, or just one inch of rain!

August was dull, showery and cool, with average temperatures and 67mm rain. So an unsettled month, finished off an almost Mediteraenean style summer. Almost a bit of a let down, but at least the rain turned the brown, scorched foilage back to its usual green colour! An unforgettable June and July which will live long in the memory, not quite spoiled by August!