Winter in Brrrritain: The Coldest Cities Revealed

Around this time of year, temperatures across Great Britain and Northern Ireland start to drop dramatically. Wardrobes full of tee-shirts and shorts are replaced with big coats, thick jumpers and fluffy socks as people across the country get to grips with crisp, cold conditions.

Winter officially starts on 21 December 2020 and ends on 20 March 2021, but as we all know, it can feel like the cold months are already here when it hits October and November time.

But just how cold do our cities become between October and March? Using the Met Office as our data source, we’ve scoured each of the 69 cities to find out which ones are the coldest when it comes to minimum and average temperatures—including air frost

The coldest city

Having crunched the data, we can reveal the coldest city as Perth, in central Scotland.

Not to be mistaken by its Australian namesake, where temperatures reach up to 30 degrees at this time of year, the Scottish city has an average minimum temperature of just 1.9 degrees and the highest average days of air frost at 9.1 days—on average—between October and March.

It’s perhaps not a shock to the system to see a Scottish city at the top of the list, but what may come as a surprise is two of three cities in joint second for lowest temperature. Bradford and Leeds—who are located eight miles apart—are just behind Perth, with a cool 2.1 degrees.

Both west Yorkshire cities also have a colder average temperature (4.9 degrees) over the six-month period than Perth (5.3 degrees).

The other city in second place on the teeth chattering podium is Aberdeen, which is 80-plus miles further north than Perth. But despite scoring lower for average temperature (5.2 degrees) and average maximum temperature (8.3 degrees), the chill can still be felt more further south in Scotland—albeit slightly!

What do Dundee and Stoke-on-Trent have in common? Well in this respect, they share the third lowest minimum temperature—2.3 degrees to be precise. The ‘City of Discovery’ and the home of pottery production are separated by approximately 316 miles, but when it comes to a cold chill, they are almost identical in every aspect of the findings.

In Northern Ireland, Derry can reach as low as 2.6 degrees but as high as 9.3 degrees, whilst Belfast is milder at 3.6 degrees and 9.8 degrees.

The regular forecast

While the picture looks cooler or warmer depending on where you place your finger on the map, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales can become cold places to live or visit.

The average temperature across all cities is just 2.4 degrees between October and March, with a maximum average of 8.4 degrees. There’s around 8.1 days of air frost a month and 14.4 days of rainfall.

Wherever you are, even maximum winter temperatures struggle to reach above 10 degrees, with only 15 of the 69 cities experiencing a double-figure on average — as Exeter takes the crown for the highest (10.8 degrees).

Stay warm inside this winter

Staying safe this winter won’t just be protection from the pandemic but also making sure your home is well heated.

At Flogas, we specialise in indoor portable gas heaters. Designed to heat your room and keep it warm and cosy, we have a range of portable heaters that are fuelled by liquefied petroleum gas. You can check out our heaters using the link above.

We also have outdoor heaters and gas bottles, which you can also purchase from our online shop.

If you want to view the full list of the coldest cities, please click download to see the data in more detail.

The data sourced from the Met Office is based on averages from a 30-year period. This is from 1980 to 2010. We have calculated averages around this information between October and March.

Figures for each city were based on climate stations. Bradford and Leeds were scored using the same station given their proximity.