Updated: 2026-07-31
If you are planning to plant tender crops or schedule an outdoor event in mid-April near Birmingham, here is the key number from the official record: on 15 April 2022, the nearest Met Office station, Coton-in-the-Elms, recorded a minimum temperature of 5.4°C. That was the minimum temperature on that specific date. It is not a frost, but it is a clear reminder that even in the second half of April, nights can still be cool enough to matter.
The point of measurement closest to Birmingham is the Met Office station at Coton-in-the-Elms (Derbyshire), situated at 85 metres above sea level, about 32.6 km from the city centre. These are its historical records, not a direct measurement of Birmingham itself. The climate you experience in Birmingham may differ from that of the station due to local factors—a different altitude, the proximity of an urban heat island, or shelter from bends in the terrain. The data presented here is the best official reference available for the area, but it is measured where it is measured.
The date of 15 April 2022 is not an arbitrary pick. It is a specific point in the series from 1991 to 2025 where we have a recorded minimum temperature of 5.4°C. That figure sits above the freezing threshold, but it illustrates how close to the edge spring nights can be. For context, the station's data shows that April is not yet a month of reliably warm nights: the average minimum temperature for April across the whole period (1991–2025) is 4.1°C. That is a long way from 0°C, but it is also not exactly balmy. The 15 April 2022 reading of 5.4°C is warmer than the April average, but the gap between the two should not be read as a guarantee of frost-free nights every year.
What makes this kind of single-date query useful is that it lets you check a specific calendar day against the historical record. Instead of wondering "is mid-April safe?", you can ask "what actually happened on 15 April?" and get an answer grounded in observations. In this case, the answer is: 5.4°C, which is above freezing but still cool enough to warrant a check of the full forecast before you commit tender plants to the ground.
To get a broader sense of when frosts are most likely, it helps to look at the average minimum temperature for each month of the year. The table below covers the full period from 1991-03-01 to 2025-12-31 at Coton-in-the-Elms. These values are the monthly means of the daily minimum temperature, calculated across all available years in that window.
| Month | Average Minimum Temperature (°C) |
|---|---|
| January | 1.5 |
| February | 1.9 |
| March | 2.8 |
| April | 4.1 |
| May | 7.0 |
| June | 10.0 |
| July | 11.9 |
| August | 11.9 |
| September | 9.8 |
| October | 7.3 |
| November | 4.1 |
| December | 2.1 |
The pattern is about what you would expect for an inland English site: the coldest nights are in January, with an average minimum of 1.5°C, and the warmest are in July and August, both at 11.9°C. The months that sit closest to the freezing point are January, February and December, with averages of 1.5°C, 1.9°C and 2.1°C respectively. These are average values, though, so in any given year there will be nights that dip well below these figures—and nights that stay well above them.
What matters for frost risk is not just the average but the spread of individual nights. An average minimum of 2.8°C in March, for example, tells you that a typical March night gets close to freezing, but it does not tell you how many nights actually fell below 0°C in any single year. For that level of detail, you would need to scan the full daily series, night by night, which is exactly what the Met Office MIDAS archive allows you to do.
If you are a gardener in the Birmingham area, the practical takeaway is this: the risk of frost does not disappear entirely until late spring. The average minimum temperature for April is 4.1°C, which leaves little margin for error on clear, calm nights when radiational cooling can push temperatures below what the monthly average suggests. The single reading on 15 April 2022 of 5.4°C was above freezing, but it was only about a degree and a half above the April average. That is not a wide buffer.
For May, the picture improves considerably. The average minimum jumps to 7.0°C, which is more than two degrees above the April figure. By June, the average minimum reaches 10.0°C, and by July and August it sits at 11.9°C. These are the months where a frost is genuinely rare at this station, though it should be noted that these are averages, not guarantees. The data window runs from 1991-03-01 to 2025-12-31, which gives us over three decades of observations to work from.
One caution: the values you see here are the long-term monthly means. They describe the typical night-time low, not the worst night in a given month. If you are planning something sensitive—like a vegetable bed of beans or tomatoes, or an outdoor wedding—you should look at the actual minimum temperature for your specific date, year by year, before making a decision. That kind of check is exactly what the historical daily series is for.
The data presented on this page comes from the Met Office MIDAS archive (Integrated Data Archive System), the UK national weather station network. The station used is Coton-in-the-Elms, which is the closest official measuring point to Birmingham. The figures are taken directly from the MIDAS database and cover the period from 1991-03-01 to 2025-12-31.
It is worth repeating that the measurements are made at Coton-in-the-Elms, not in Birmingham itself. The city's urban heat island effect—where buildings and paved surfaces retain heat at night—can keep Birmingham's minimum temperatures slightly higher than those at a rural station like Coton-in-the-Elms. At the same time, local topography can funnel cold air into low-lying spots, creating pockets where frost forms earlier and persists longer. The station data is the best officially recorded reference we have for the area, but it is not a perfect proxy for every garden or street in Birmingham.
For the specific date of 15 April, the record is clear: 5.4°C at Coton-in-the-Elms in 2022. No frost was recorded on that day. But the broader monthly pattern shows that April, with an average minimum of 4.1°C, is a month where the temperature can still dip close to the danger line. Check the daily record for your exact date if you want certainty, and always keep an eye on the short-term forecast as the date approaches.
Source: Met Office MIDAS archive, station Coton-in-the-Elms. Data period: 1991–2025.
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