Minus 30 degrees

[hillbilly]

It is well known that the UK absolute minimum has been set on 3 separate occasions,at  Braemar in 1895 and 1982 and also Altnaharra in 1995,all recording -27.2 deg. Maybe not so widely known is that the English record stands just over 1 degree short at -26.1 deg set  at Harper Adams College,Newport on the same day as at Braemar,10th January 1982.The previous English record had only been set just the previous month in December 1981,-25.1 deg just up the road from Newport at Shawbury.

On Friday i went with my brother to a farm just North of Much Wenlock to pick up some equipment parts the farmer was selling.After much talk about farming and tractors we all reminisced about working on farms in our younger days and the topic ventured into Weather and snow.As i recounted the bitter winters of 1979,i982 and 1986 i suddenly recalled just where i was and said to the Farmer ,Shawbury isnt far from here,where the record was set[as for some reason i thought the English record stood at Shawbury] His reply was the record was set at a neighbouring farm where he happened to be that morning when his neighbour showed him two thermometers that both read -30 deg.Obviously i wasnt going to pour water over his story and am sure -30deg was not reached,no one knows what type of thermometers he had  and it was almost 40 years for the story to be told.However having looked at the map when i got home the location is very close to both Shawbury and Newport but also sits in a slight valley of 500ft sandwiched between hills either side and does suggest that it is possible that on that day this location could indeed produce a temperature maybe not -30deg but certainly colder than the English official record of -26.1deg!

[matty40s]

The problem is with official records, is that they are recorded in official locations. 

Frost hollows, local inversions, strange windows and other geographical and topographical anomalies can lead to local variations on a large scale. 

I remember leaving London on Christmas day 2010 with a remarkably accurate Skoda temp recorder.

-2 to Watford, down to -3 approaching Luton, then I left the cloud cover, straight down to -11..ranged between that and -16 all the way to Northampton.

Then as I came over the hills to Crick J18-19, there were strange little grey clouds under a blue sky, very low down, scooting east to west, and the reading went down to -22 near to Lubbesthorpe(avon valley), rising back to -16 by Lutterworth.

Localised weather extremes will never be accepted nationally unless there is a Met office station, or a vast number of confirming reports from many local stations.

[trickydicky]

I’ve been to Harper Adams and as I recall it’s in quite a shallow, wide valley that you don’t even notice you’re in. I suppose it’s possible that within that there are little localised features that could create frost hollows within the frost hollow! Probably more likely that the farmers thermometers weren’t set up at standard requirements. 
 

When I was younger I had a Guinness Book of Records that quoted the British record minimum as being -30.6 at Blackadder in the Scottish Borders in December 1879. 

Edited November 14, 2021 by trickydicky

[Wold Topper]

I took a picture in 2010 of the dashboard in my car of -25c on my way to work, it was a Renault (i know) coldest i ever remember of my 45 years on this sphere?

[A Face like Thunder]

I have a very blurred TV shot of Michael Fish and '-20' on one of those stick-on weather aids which the Met Office used to use on the BBC forecasts. Was 12th-13th Dec 1981.