Home Page

The 10 coldest Central England Temperatures for January, February and March since 1659

January	Monthly Mean		February	Monthly Mean		March	Monthly Mean
January	Temp °C		February	Temp °C		March	Temp °C
1795	-3.1		1947	-1.9		1677	1.0
1684	-3.0		1895	-1.8		1788	1.2
1814	-2.9		1855	-1.7		1751	1.8
1740	-2.8		1740	-1.6		1886	1.9
1963	-2.1		1986	-1.1		1670	2.0
1716	-2.0		1684	-1.0		1848	2.0
1776	-1.6		1963	-0.7		1792	2.1
1709	-1.5		1956	-0.2		1789	2.1
1838	-1.5		1692	0.0		1840	2.3
1881	-1.5		1942	0.1		1773	2.5

The Central England Temperature (CET) series was devised by Professor Gordon Manley (1902-1980). He originally defined Central England as the area from the Lancashire Plain to the East and West Midlands although the CET series is a useful indicator of mean temperature for a somewhat wider area-roughly the triangular area Malvern-Manchester-London. The temperature record begins in 1659 and has been maintained to the present day. More recent temperatures have been corrected to take account of increased urbanisation.
The table above shows that February 1947 was the coldest February in the series but January 1963 was an even colder winter month. Neither of these matched January 1795!
Sources of information Martin Rowley's Pages of Frequently Asked Questions for uk.sci.weather The Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office (click on 'Climate Monitoring') Historic Station Data from the UK Met Office (starts more recently than CET series)
CET Values 1990-2003

Home Page