Updated: 2026-08-13
If you live in Buxton or plan to visit the High Peak, you know this corner of Derbyshire is rarely the hottest place in Britain. The town sits high and exposed, and its climate reflects that. But the Met Office's long-running station here, with records going back to 1875, tells a fascinating story about how often things get properly hot – and how that frequency has shifted over a century and a half. On average, the number of days per year where the temperature climbs to or above 28°C remains low, but it is far from constant.
That figure – 7 days in a single year – stands out immediately when you scan the full series. For comparison, many years in the late 19th century recorded 0 days at or above 28°C, and the warmest day of those years sometimes failed to reach even 25°C. In 1876, the highest temperature noted across the entire year was just 8.9°C, a reminder of how cold this upland station can be. The 2022 season, by contrast, produced not only that exceptional count of hot days but also the highest absolute temperature ever measured at Buxton: 35.9°C on 20 July 2022. That is a full 10 degrees above the summer norm most residents would expect.
Look at the way these hot days are distributed across decades, and a clear pattern emerges. From the 1870s through the 1960s, the average number of days per year above 28°C was always below one – often exactly zero. The 1890s stood slightly apart with 0.5 days per year, and the 1930s reached 0.6, but these were isolated peaks in an otherwise quiet record. Then, starting in the 1990s, the numbers begin to lift in a way that is hard to miss. The 1990s averaged 1.0 day per year above 28°C, the 2000s 0.9, and the 2010s dropped to 0.3 – a reminder that this is not a straight upward line. But the most striking change comes with the current decade: from 2020 onwards, the average has jumped to 2.6 days per year above 28°C.
The table below shows the five years with the most days at or above 28°C in Buxton, and the five years with the fewest, using the complete Met Office series from this station.
| Year | Days ≥28°C | Hottest day of that year (°C) |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 7 | 35.9 |
| 2026 | 6 | 32.0 |
| 1995 | 4 | 28.5 |
| 2006 | 4 | 30.1 |
| 1976 | 3 | 29.0 |
| 1875 | 0 | 24.4 |
| 1876 | 0 | 8.9 |
| 1889 | 0 | 23.5 |
| 1892 | 0 | 25.8 |
| 1894 | 0 | — |
When you live in Buxton, a day at or above 28°C is not just warm – it is an event. The town is known for its cool, damp summers, and locals often joke that you need a jumper even in July. Crossing the 28°C mark means the kind of heat that makes stone houses feel stuffy, that sends people to the parks and the reservoir, and that occasionally lands the town in the national news for being, of all things, hot. The gap between a year like 1875, with zero such days and a maximum of just 24.4°C, and 2022, with seven days of genuine heat, is the difference between two entirely different summer experiences a century and a half apart.
It is also worth noting that these thresholds are not arbitrary. In meteorological terms, 28°C is a meaningful line for this altitude – it is roughly the temperature at which the air mass over the High Peak has to be exceptionally warm, often pulled up from the south or continent, to overcome the usual Atlantic influence. When you see 3 days in 1976 – the year of the great UK drought – or 4 days in 1995 and 2006, you are seeing years when the weather patterns aligned to push Buxton into territory that is normal for London or Birmingham but remarkable here.
The data from 2020 to 2026 is particularly striking. The decade average of 2.6 days per year is by far the highest in the entire record, more than double the 1990s figure of 1.0 and a long way from the zeroes of the 1870s, 1880s, 1910s, and 1960s. Only half a decade has been measured, so the 2.6 is based on those years, but it already includes the standout summer of 2022 and the still-in-progress 2026, which has logged 6 days above 28°C as of mid-year. Whether this marks a permanent shift or a cluster of exceptional seasons remains to be seen – the 2010s, after all, dropped to 0.3 days after the warmer 1990s and 2000s. But the direction of travel in this decade is unmistakable.
For anyone planning a garden party, a wedding, or a summer festival in Buxton, the practical lesson from 150 years of Met Office records is simple: heat is no longer a freak occurrence, but it is still the exception. Most years bring only one or two days that touch 28°C, and many bring none at all. The odds of scoring a genuinely hot day are better now than they were in your grandparents' time, but Buxton's weather remains, above all, its own – cool, changeable, and never to be taken for granted.
Source: Met Office, Buxton station · Period: 1875–2026
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