Updated: 2026-07-29
On the other end of the scale, 2020 stands alone with just 19 frost days, the lowest count in the entire 144‑year series from the Met Office’s Durham station.
Durham, in north‑east England, sits in a valley of the River Wear, a setting that can trap cold air on clear winter nights. Since 1880, the official thermometer site — now part of the UK’s national climate network — has recorded the daily minimum temperature without interruption. A frost day here is any day when the minimum temperature falls below 0 °C.
The graph below shows every year from 1880 through 2024. The long‑term picture is clear: frost days were common through the late 19th and most of the 20th century, with many years above 60. The run from 1887 to 1892 produced five consecutive years above 80 frost days — a feat never repeated. Since 1990, the number of frost days has shrunk noticeably. The last year to reach 80 was 1985 (82 frost days). The 2010s delivered several mild winters: 2014 saw just 27 frost days, 2011 recorded 33, and 2015 also 33. Then came 2020, with only 19 frost days, a record low that still stands.
The chart shows the complete annual series. The table lists the most notable years; the full series comes from Met Office.
| Year | Frost days |
|---|---|
| 1901 | 79 |
| 1909 | 87 |
| 1917 | 101 |
| 1931 | 79 |
| 1942 | 90 |
| 1985 | 82 |
| 2020 | 19 |
Each bar represents one year. Hover or tap for the exact value. Data: Met Office / MIDAS.
Because a frost day is defined by the minimum temperature, the long‑term average minimum provides the backdrop. In 1881, when frost days reached 92, the mean annual minimum was just 3.5 °C. By 2024, that same figure had climbed to 6.8 °C — a rise of 3.3 °C over 144 years. The warmest year for overnight temperatures was 2024 (6.8 °C), followed by 2022 and 2023 (both 6.6 °C). The coldest was 1892, with a mean minimum of 3.4 °C — the same year that produced the all‑time highest frost‑day count of 103.
Notice how the 103 frost days of 1892 — a number that dwarfs every other year — coincided with an annual average minimum of just 3.4 °C, the coldest in the whole record. That winter alone pushed the count past the century mark; no other year has reached 100 frost days since.
From the full series of 144 years, here are the five years with the most frost days and the five with the fewest:
| Rank | Most frost days | Count | Fewest frost days | Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1892 | 103 | 2020 | 19 |
| 2 | 1887 | 99 | 1938 | 27 |
| 3 | 1895 | 96 | 2014 | 27 |
| 4 | 1881 | 92 | 2024 | 27 |
| 5 | 1942 | 90 | 1990 | 29 |
In a typical winter, the first frost arrives sometime in October and the last frost can stretch into May, but the bulk of icy nights cluster between November and February. The 99 frost days of 1887 translate to a winter where sub‑zero minima were the rule rather than the exception for more than three months straight. In contrast, 2020’s 19 frost days — barely two and a half weeks’ worth across the whole year — illustrate how much the local climate has shifted, especially since the turn of the 21st century.
This page uses official UK Met Office data from the MIDAS archive, held at CEDA. The station used is Durham (ID 00326), covering 1 January 1880 through 31 December 2024. Frost days are defined as any day with a recorded minimum temperature below 0 °C. All figures are exact as held in the MIDAS daily dataset.
Data source: Met Office, MIDAS (Integrated Data Archive System), UK national weather station network. Station: Durham. Period: 1880–2024.
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© 2026 HistoClima · data: Met Office (OGL v3.0) · not affiliated with Met Office · citation permitted with source.