Updated: 2026-07-29
Across the full series from 1882 to 2024, the Met Office station at Sheffield recorded a historical average of 33.8 frost days per year. That is the number of days each year when the minimum temperature dropped below 0 °C — a frost day. But the range is enormous: in some years frost visits the city on only a handful of mornings, while in others it stays for more than two months.
The least frosty year on record is 1923, with just 5 frost days. That year the average minimum temperature was 4.6 °C, already borderline for frost, but the pattern of mild nights kept the frost count very low. Two other years come close: 1938 (7 frost days) and 1974 (7 frost days). In the 21st century, the lowest count is 8 frost days in 2014, a year that also saw the highest average minimum temperature in the entire series (7.6 °C).
The data shows a clear shift. In the late 19th century, frosts were frequent: between 1886 and 1892, three winters delivered more than 70 frost days each. The 1910s and 1920s brought a cluster of mild winters, notably 1914 (14 frost days) and 1920 (14 frost days). From the 1970s onward, the pattern tilts again, but the extreme highs become rarer. The last year with more than 60 frost days was 1979 (60 frost days). The only year since 2000 to exceed 50 is 2010 (58 frost days), which saw the infamous December cold spell that brought snow and ice across Britain.
The table below lists every year from 1882 to 2024 with its frost‑day count and the historical average (33.8) for context. In the line chart the series is shown as a blue line; the dashed line marks the long‑term mean.
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 | 60 |
| 1917 | 69 |
| 1923 | 5 |
| 1947 | 69 |
| 1963 | 74 |
| 1969 | 65 |
| 1979 | 60 |
The annual average minimum temperature gives a clue. When the mean minimum stays above 7.0 °C, the frost count tends to drop sharply. In years like 2014 (mean min 7.6 °C) and 2023 (mean min 7.9 °C), frost days were in the single or low teens. Conversely, years with mean minima below 5.5 °C — such as 1882 (mean min 0.5 °C) and 1892 (mean min 4.6 °C) — produced heavy frost counts. The correlation is not perfect, but the direction is clear: Sheffield’s warming trend since the 1980s has brought fewer days below freezing, even if cold spells still punctuate the record.
The four highest frost years all occurred before 1900 or in the mid‑20th century. No year since 1963 has matched the 70‑frost mark. The 21st century maximum remains 58 frost days (2010).
Since 2000, the frost count has stayed below 50 in most years, but there are exceptions: 2001 (48 frost days), 2003 (41), and 2010 (58) stand out. The decade with the most consistently low counts so far is the 2010s, with only two years exceeding 30 frost days. The last year to reach 60 frost days was 1979 (60). The last frost count of exactly 0 has never occurred in Sheffield — every year in the series has at least 5 frost days.
Source: Met Office MIDAS (Integrated Data Archive System) — UK national weather station network, station: Sheffield (ID 00525), period: 1882–2024. Official data under the Open Government Licence.
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© 2026 HistoClima · data: Met Office (OGL v3.0) · not affiliated with Met Office · citation permitted with source.