Updated: 2026-09-29
That is the most recent decade average for Manchester's long-running station at Rochdale. Over the full 1975-2024 window it stands at 96.6 days a year. The city is not seeing fewer pleasant days — the latest decade runs above the longer-term figure. Every number on this page comes from the Met Office MIDAS archive.
It is a strictly temperature-based measure. A fine weather day is one where the maximum temperature stays at 30 °C or below and the minimum is 10 °C or above. No rainfall, wind, sunshine or humidity enters the calculation — a grey but mild day still counts. That makes the series a clean record of "comfortable" days: not cold, not stifling, just workable weather.
The story is simple. From 1975 to 1984 the station's average cannot be stated from this data — it is not available for that window. What is available is the pairing of the long run and the recent run:
| Period | Fine weather days per year |
|---|---|
| 1975-2024 | 96.6 |
| 2015-2024 | 99.1 |
Read these as two literal figures side by side. The most recent ten years sit a fraction above the fifty-year baseline — not a dramatic surge, but a consistent upward lean. Manchester's reputation for grey skies and drizzle hides a quieter point: the number of days that meet the mild-temperature standard has not been shrinking.
A stricter filter tells a similar story. Since 2000, the station has logged 629 perfect days out of 6,571 total days. A perfect day is defined more tightly: maximum temperature between 20 °C and 30 °C, and minimum above 10 °C. That is the narrow band most people picture when they say "a lovely day".
| Period | Perfect days | Total days recorded | Share of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000-present | 629 | 6,571 | 9.6% |
Roughly one day in ten since the turn of the century has landed inside that Goldilocks window. For a city that sits under a prevailing westerly flow, that is a meaningful share — it means an average of several perfect days scattered across every spring, summer and early autumn.
Manchester's weather is often framed as a single grey blur. The temperature data says otherwise. Days that are neither frosty nor hot — the ones people actually book time outside for — remain steady, and the latest decade runs at 99.1 a year. For anyone planning a wedding, a hike in the Peak District or a week of outdoor work, that is the number to circle.
Two caveats. First, these figures describe temperature only. A statistically "fine" day can still be wet and overcast — the measure deliberately excludes rainfall so that mild, damp days are not erased from the record. Second, the series runs from 1948 to 2025, but the decadal averages used here begin in 1975; the earlier years feed the daily archive rather than these particular averages.
Manchester's fine weather days are holding their ground, and on the most recent evidence they are slightly more frequent than the half-century norm. The 2015-2024 average of 99.1 sits above the 1975-2024 average of 96.6. Since 2000, 629 perfect days have been logged out of 6,571. None of that matches the city's gloomy caricature — and all of it comes straight from the instruments.
Source: Met Office MIDAS archive. Station: Rochdale. Period: 1948-2025. Data licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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© 2026 HistoClima · data: Met Office (OGL v3.0) · not affiliated with Met Office · citation permitted with source.