- England’s lowest ever temperature recorded near Cardington was -26.1c in 1982 and has has risen to 10.4c today
By
Nadia Gilani
Last updated at 2:21 AM on 11th January 2012
Taken at exactly the same spot in a sleepy rural village, these picturesque photographs are a perfect illustration of the unusually mild British winter.
Thirty years ago today, England’s lowest ever temperature was recorded near Cardington, Shropshire – with the mercury falling to a staggering -26.1c (-15f).
But pictures taken at exactly the same spot three decades later paint a dramatically different picture – with yesterday’s daytime temperature of around 10.4c (51f) as the country continues to enjoy one of the mildest winters in recent memory.
Freezing: A striking picture of country lanes near Cardington, Shropshire photographed on January 10, 1982 depicting England’s lowest temperature ever seen
A Met Office spokesman told MailOnline it no longer kept an exact record for Cardington, but the daytime temperature in nearby towns of Newport and Shawbury was 11.2c (52f) yesterday.
Bill Burrell noted the record-breaking low temperature at a weather station near Newport, on January 10, 1982, and says he remembers the day vividly.
‘I had frost on my eyelashes,’ the former Met Office worker recalled.
‘I knew it was cold that day, but it came as quite a shock when I saw it was minus 26.1c.
‘It had snowed the night before, but had cleared up and it was a lovely day – just bitterly, bitterly cold.’
Thirty years later, things could hardly be different from that ice-cold day – with forecasters saying there is no sign of a blanket of snow or a big freeze for at least the next couple of weeks.
The mild weather can be seen in every
corner of the British countryside, with snowdrops already blooming and
daffodil shoots bravely starting to appear.
This is a far cry from the
fiercely cold winter of 1982, when one of the most disruptive snowstorms
on record occurred – with gale force winds and heavy snow sending sever
blizzards across southern England, the Midlands and Wales.
Mild: The exact same country lanes photographed today reveal the change in temperature for the area over the decades
Throughout the snow fall temperatures were recorded as between -20c and -40c but in Shropshire temperatures fell to a chilly -26.1c, which, to this day, remains the coldest temperature on record throughout England.
The record is viewed by many experts as an odd one for Shropshire to hold as the county’s climate is generally moderate with an average minimum temperature of just 5.20c.
However, its rural and inland location means temperatures have been known to fall dramatically on clear winter nights.
Met Office spokeswoman Alison Richards said: ‘The mild westerly flow from the Atlantic has been unimpeded – allowing milder Atlantic air and changeable, often stormy, conditions to take charge.’