Updated: 29 July 2026
Since records began in 1908, the Met Office weather station at Bradford has counted a total of 117 years of daily minimum temperature data. Over that long period, Bradford averages 43 frost days per year — that is, days when the minimum temperature drops below 0 °C. But the range is enormous: from a mild 15 frost days in both 1990 and 2014, up to a bitter 93 frost days in 1917.
The all‑time record for frost in Bradford was set in 1917, with a staggering 93 frost days — that means the ground froze on more than one out of every four mornings that year. It remains the highest annual count in the entire 117‑year series.
The year 1917 was exceptional not just for its total count. It was part of a run of severe winters that affected much of the UK, and it sits well above the second‑highest year, 1979, which had 78 frost days, and 1969 with 79 frost days. The coldest years in the record — 1917, 1969, 1979 and also 2010 with 76 frost days — all stand out as clear outliers. At the other end of the scale, the mildest year on record is 1990, with only 15 frost days, tied with 2014. Those years barely saw a fortnight of freezing nights.
A “frost day” is counted whenever the official daily minimum temperature at the Bradford station falls below 0.0 °C. The data comes from the UK Met Office’s MIDAS archive (Integrated Data Archive System), accessed via the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis. The station used is the long‑running Bradford climatological site (Met Office station code 00516), with a continuous daily record from 1 January 1908 to 31 December 2024. No estimates or gap‑filling are applied — every freeze is a real measured event.
The chart below shows the annual number of frost days (minimum temperature below 0 °C) as a continuous line for each year from 1908 to 2024. The 117‑year series is complete, with no missing years.
The chart shows the complete annual series. The table lists the most notable years; the full series comes from Met Office.
| Year | Frost days |
|---|---|
| 1917 | 93 |
| 1947 | 77 |
| 1963 | 75 |
| 1969 | 79 |
| 1979 | 78 |
| 1990 | 15 |
| 2010 | 76 |
The sharp end of the record is dominated by the early 20th century and the late 20th century cold spells. The top five years, with the number of frost days, are:
| Rank | Year | Frost days |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1917 | 93 |
| 2 | 1969 | 79 |
| 3 | 1979 | 78 |
| 4 | 1947 | 77 |
| 5 | 2010 | 76 |
The 1917 record still stands, 107 years later. The most recent year to break into the all‑time top five was 2010, which ties 1963’s 75 frost days and jumped straight to fifth place because 2010 had 76.
At the other extreme, the years with the least frost are all from recent decades, the mildest being:
| Rank | Year | Frost days |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1990 | 15 |
| 2 | 2014 | 15 |
| 3 | 2020 | 16 |
| 4 | 1938 | 18 |
| 5 | 1974 | 18 |
1990 and 2014 share the same low count of 15 frost days. The 1938 and 1974 values of 18 days show that very mild years are not exclusive to the 21st century, but five of the seven mildest years (15 to 20 frost days) have occurred since 1989.
The Met Office also provides the annual average of daily minimum temperatures for Bradford. In 1917, the year with 93 frost days, the mean minimum was just 4.6 °C. In the mildest year, 1990, the mean minimum reached 6.3 °C, and in 2014 it was 7.1 °C — the highest mean minimum on record. The lowest mean minimum temperature was recorded in 1929, at 2.5 °C, a year that saw 34 frost days, but the cold was exceptionally persistent even outside the frost count. The warmest mean minimum temperature on record was 7.5 °C in 2022.
Bradford sits in a valley of West Yorkshire, surrounded by the Pennines, and its climate is cool and damp. A frost day here is typically a clear, calm night in late autumn, winter or early spring. The first frost of autumn often arrives in October, and the last frost in April or even early May. The 1917 record of 93 frost days means that frost occurred on nearly 26% of all days that year — a freeze every four days on average. In contrast, 1990 and 2014, with only 15 frost days, saw frost on just 4% of days. The recent trend, since the 1990s, has been towards fewer frost days: the 10‑year average from 2015 to 2024 is about 29 frost days per year, compared to 48 frost days per year in the 1910s.
The 117‑year Bradford series is one of the longest continuous frost records in northern England. It begins in 1908, the same year the Met Office started systematic observations at the site. The data from 1908 to 2024 is complete, with no artificial gaps or merged stations. This makes it a reliable source for tracking how the frequency of freezing nights has changed over more than a century. The long‑term average of 43 frost days per year masks a clear shift: from 1910 to 1949 the average was 47 frost days per year; from 1990 to 2024 it dropped to 34 frost days per year — a reduction of 13 frost days per year.
If you are planning an outdoor event in Bradford — a garden party, a wedding, a sports fixture — the safest months to avoid frost are July and August. Even in June, the record shows occasional frosts, though they are rare. November, December, January and February are the core frost months, with January historically the most reliable for freezing nights.
Source: Met Office MIDAS (Integrated Data Archive System), Bradford station, daily data 1908–2024. 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.