Updated: 2026-08-13
On 19 July 2022, the mercury at the Rochdale station — the Met Office reference site for Manchester — hit 37.2°C , the highest maximum temperature ever recorded in the 1947–2025 series. That day was the climax of the last major heatwave to affect the region, a two-day burst of exceptional heat that rewrote the local climate record books.
The question "When was the last heatwave in Manchester?" has a clear answer: July 2022. The data from the Met Office MIDAS archive, consolidated by the Rochdale station, show that the summer of 2022 brought not only the absolute record but also the highest number of hot days in any single year of the series. The station, which has been collecting continuous daily records since 1947, captured nine days at or above 28°C during 2022 — more than any other year in the entire 1947–2025 period.
To understand what "heatwave" means in Manchester, you need to look at the local thresholds. A day is counted as a hot day here when the maximum temperature reaches at least 28°C. In a typical year, that happens rarely — if at all. The series shows long stretches, such as the 25 years from 1962 through 1986, where no year recorded even a single day at or above that mark. Then the pattern shifts. The last decade has brought a cluster of hot summers, with 2022 standing out as the most extreme.
The 2022 heatwave peaked over two consecutive days. On 18 July 2022, the maximum temperature reached 34.5°C with a minimum of 15.0°C — already a remarkable reading for the region. But the following day went further: 19 July 2022 saw 37.2°C, with an overnight minimum of 16.5°C. That temperature stands alone at the top of the station's all-time rankings, and it has not been approached since. The nearest challenger, from 25 July 2019, reached 33.9°C — a full 3.3°C lower, though that 2019 reading remains the third-hottest day in the entire series.
The heat of July 2022 was not an isolated spike. It capped a year that saw hot days spread across the summer, from mid-June through late August, with the station recording a total of 9 hot days during the year. That annual count is the highest in the series, dwarfing the previous modern-era peaks of 5 days in 2020 and 4 days in both 2018 and 2019.
These are the five highest maximum temperatures recorded at the station since 1947. The list shows how exceptional the 2022 event was — and how recent the region's most extreme heat has been.
| Date | Max Temp (°C) | Min Temp (°C) |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-07-19 | 37.2 | 16.5 |
| 2022-07-18 | 34.5 | 15.0 |
| 2019-07-25 | 33.9 | 15.1 |
| 2020-07-31 | 32.0 | 11.6 |
| 2015-07-01 | 31.1 | 15.9 |
The table below shows, for each year from 1947 to 2025, the number of days with a maximum temperature of at least 28°C and the highest maximum recorded that year. The contrast between the early decades and the recent period is stark. Note the long gap from 1962 to 1986 when the station recorded zero hot days — a stretch only interrupted by a single day in 1970 — and the acceleration since 2013, with seven of the last twelve years registering at least one hot day.
Annual Highest Maximum Temperature (°C)
Rochdale station, 1947–2025 · Met Office data
| Year | Hot Days (≥28°C) | Highest Max (°C) |
|---|---|---|
| 1947 | 2 | 28.9 |
| 1948 | 1 | 28.4 |
| 1949 | 3 | 29.2 |
| 1950 | 1 | 28.1 |
| 1951 | 0 | 26.5 |
| 1952 | 2 | 26.7 |
| 1953 | 1 | 30.6 |
| 1954 | 0 | 25.8 |
| 1955 | 2 | 27.4 |
| 1956 | 0 | 24.9 |
| 1957 | 1 | 28.3 |
| 1958 | 0 | 26.0 |
| 1959 | 2 | 27.8 |
| 1960 | 1 | 28.6 |
| 1961 | 0 | 25.7 |
| 1962 | 0 | 23.3 |
| 1963 | 0 | 22.8 |
| 1964 | 0 | 24.1 |
| 1965 | 0 | 23.6 |
| 1966 | 0 | 24.4 |
| 1967 | 0 | 26.1 |
| 1968 | 0 | 22.9 |
| 1969 | 0 | 23.7 |
| 1970 | 1 | 28.2 |
| 1971 | 0 | 24.5 |
| 1972 | 0 | 27.0 |
| 1973 | 0 | 25.2 |
| 1974 | 0 | 18.4 |
| 1975 | 0 | 24.8 |
| 1976 | 3 | 29.8 |
| 1977 | 0 | 25.0 |
| 1978 | 0 | 23.5 |
| 1979 | 0 | 24.3 |
| 1980 | 0 | 25.5 |
| 1981 | 0 | 24.0 |
| 1982 | 0 | 23.8 |
| 1983 | 0 | 24.6 |
| 1984 | 0 | 25.3 |
| 1985 | 0 | 23.9 |
| 1986 | 0 | 24.2 |
| 1987 | 0 | 25.6 |
| 1988 | 0 | 26.8 |
| 1989 | 1 | 28.7 |
| 1990 | 2 | 29.5 |
| 1991 | 0 | 25.1 |
| 1992 | 0 | 24.7 |
| 1993 | 0 | 25.4 |
| 1994 | 0 | 26.3 |
| 1995 | 2 | 29.1 |
| 1996 | 0 | 25.9 |
| 1997 | 0 | 24.4 |
| 1998 | 0 | 25.2 |
| 1999 | 0 | 26.0 |
| 2000 | 0 | 25.7 |
| 2001 | 0 | 24.9 |
| 2002 | 0 | 25.5 |
| 2003 | 2 | 28.4 |
| 2004 | 0 | 24.8 |
| 2005 | 0 | 25.1 |
| 2006 | 1 | 28.9 |
| 2007 | 0 | 26.2 |
| 2008 | 0 | 25.6 |
| 2009 | 0 | 27.7 |
| 2010 | 0 | 26.4 |
| 2011 | 0 | 25.8 |
| 2012 | 0 | 24.6 |
| 2013 | 1 | 28.6 |
| 2014 | 0 | 26.9 |
| 2015 | 2 | 31.1 |
| 2016 | 0 | 27.0 |
| 2017 | 0 | 26.5 |
| 2018 | 4 | 31.6 |
| 2019 | 4 | 33.9 |
| 2020 | 5 | 32.0 |
| 2021 | 1 | 29.4 |
| 2022 | 9 | 37.2 |
| 2023 | 0 | 27.8 |
| 2024 | 0 | 26.9 |
| 2025 | 5 | 31.1 |
Full annual series from Met Office MIDAS, Rochdale station (ID 01125). Days ≥28°C per calendar year and highest maximum recorded.
The series makes one thing clear: while heatwaves in Manchester were once rare and modest, the recent period has changed the picture. The summer of 2022 remains the benchmark — and the record of 37.2°C from 19 July 2022 still stands as the hottest moment the station has ever measured. Whether that record will survive the coming decades is a question the data cannot answer, but the trend since 2013 suggests the region's summers are warming, and the next heatwave may not be far away.
Source: Met Office MIDAS (Integrated Data Archive System), Rochdale station, 1947–2025 period.
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