Maidenhead's 'warmest' coldest night experienced in 2020

Maidenhead experienced its ‘warmest’ coldest night in decades at the end of 2020.

On the morning of New Year’s Eve, temperatures in Boyn Hill dropped to -3.5C, the coldest temperature recorded in the town in 2020.

However, according to meteorological expert Roger Brugge, based at the University of Reading, last Wednesday was the ‘warmest’ coldest day of any year Maidenhead has experienced since records began.

Weather observations have been taking place at Hurley since 1953, making it the warmest coldest day for at least 67 years.

Mr Brugge said: “This lack of really frosty nights in Maidenhead has become more of a feature of our weather over the past 20 years.

“Climatological statistics suggest that in a typical year we would now expect the air temperature to fall to almost -6C sometime each year; 20 years ago the expectation was the coldest night to be about 1.5C colder than this.

“This lack of very cold nights is mirrored in the decline of days with snowfall in the town.

“Currently we might expect 10 days each year to see snow or sleet falling – 20 years ago two or three additional days with wintry falls would have been expected.

“We have had just one day with snowfall in Maidenhead in 2020 – a slight fall of sleet on February 27.”