Updated: 2026-07-30
79 frost days in 1979 — the highest annual count in the series from 1978 to 2025. That winter the average minimum temperature at High Beach fell to 5.2 °C, the coldest year on record here. The low-lying Epping Forest edge, exposed to cold air drainage, recorded more than two and a half months of sub-zero minima in a single year.
The Met Office station at High Beach (ID 00481) has been recording daily minimum temperatures since August 1978. A frost day is defined as any day when the minimum temperature falls below 0 °C. The data set covers 48 complete years (1978–2025) and shows a wide range between extreme cold and mild winters.
Over the full period, the average annual number of frost days is roughly 38. But the year-to-year variability is very high. The frostiest winter — 1979, with 79 frost days — was followed by 1985 (72 frost days) and 2010 (76 frost days). At the other extreme, 2002 saw just 4 frost days, the lowest in the entire series. The next mildest years are 2014 with 13 frost days and 2024 with 15 frost days.
The table below lists every year from 1978 to 2025 with its total frost days. The pattern reflects both natural variability and a subtle long-term trend towards fewer frost days in recent decades — especially visible in the 2010s and 2020s.
The chart shows the complete annual series. The table lists the most notable years; the full series comes from Met Office.
| Year | Frost days | Mean min temp (°C) |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 4 | 7.2 |
| 2006 | 45 | 3.7 |
| 2014 | 13 | 7.4 |
| 2022 | 27 | 7.3 |
| 2023 | 34 | 7.4 |
| 2024 | 15 | 7.7 |
| 2025 | 29 | 7.3 |
The two standout frost years — 1979 (79 frost days) and 2010 (76 frost days) — share a common pattern: persistent high pressure over Scandinavia and the North Sea in winter, channelling cold easterly airflow across Essex. In both years, the mean minimum temperature dropped to 5.2 °C and 5.4 °C respectively, well below the long-term average of about 6.3 °C.
At the other end, 2002 (4 frost days) and 2014 (13 frost days) were dominated by mild westerly maritime air masses, with mean minima of 7.2 °C and 7.4 °C. The gentlest year so far is 2024 with a mean minimum of 7.7 °C — the warmest in the whole record — yet still 15 frost days occurred, mostly during brief cold snaps in January and February.
Beyond the annual totals, the station’s daily data reveals that the longest frost spells tend to cluster in the winters of 1979, 1985, and 2010. The 1979 season alone produced 79 frost days, meaning frost occurred on more than 1 in every 5 days that year. In contrast, 2002 had only 4 frost days — the equivalent of a single week of cold weather scattered across the whole year.
Source: Met Office MIDAS (Integrated Data Archive System) — High Beach station (00481), period 1978–2025. Official data under Open Government Licence v3.0, held at CEDA.
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© 2026 HistoClima · data: Met Office (OGL v3.0) · not affiliated with Met Office · citation permitted with source.