The UK cities that have the most hours of winter sun
With the temperature gradually dropping and the bleak winter months now closing in, heating and boiler experts at HeatingForce.co.uk were curious to find out which city in the UK has the ‘warmest’ winter.
To get accurate results, HeatingForce.co.uk created an index that took into consideration not only the average temperature (°C) but also hours of sunshine, days of air frost, volume of rainfall (mm), days of rainfall and the average wind speed of UK cities during prime winter months (Dec, Jan, Feb).
The places that have the ‘warmest’ winter in the UK?
The index revealed that the warmest cities in the UK during winter are Slough (570 points), Sunderland (500), Poole (500), Southend-On-Sea (450) and Ipswich (440). The highest scores were given to the cities within the top 10% of the sample results.
The Berkshire town of Slough is crowned the ‘warmest’ with an overall of 570 points! Slough scored the second highest points possible for the considered positive factors: Minimum and Maximum Temperature (270 out of 300), and Hours of Sunshine (180 out of 200). For negative factors such as Days of Air Frost, Days of Rainfall and Wind Speed, it’s 60, 20 and 40 points, respectively.
Making the top 20 as the least warm city in the UK is Norwich with 210 points. The city in Norfolk scored a total of 210 and 180 points for Min and Max Temperature, and 140 points for Hours of Sunshine. A high amount of negative points was taken for Wind Speed (-140).
The highest temperatures in winter are in Plymouth, Poole and Southampton!
Based on the methodology, these beach cities scored the highest points (300) for Maximum Temperature andMinimum Temperature. The highlight is Plymouth, where you'll find the optimum climate for a warm winter, with the best max and min temperatures of all: a max average of 9°C and min 4°C - compared to places such as Bradford and Leeds (average min of 0.6°C). (Bradford and Leads can be found in the excel sheet with the full data).
Where to get the most hours of winter sun?
For extra hours of sunshine in winter, Poole, Ipswich and Plymouth are the best places to be. The cities/towns scored the highest points (200) for Hours of Sunshine. From the top 20 warmest cities/towns, Poole is revealed to have the most hours of sunshine in winter months (an average of 70 hours and 12 minutes). Swansea ranks as the city with the least hours of sunshine in winter (58 hours and 48 minutes).
Which cities/towns have the wettest winter?
HeatingForce.co.uk attributed a maximum of 100 negative points for the quantity of Rainfall (mm) and Days of Rainfall, meaning that the more rainfall the city has, the more negative points were scored.
The results revealed that Plymouth and Cardiff are the only places to score the highest negative points for volume of Rainfall (-100 points and Days of Rainfall (-90). The cities that have the least volume and days of rainfall are Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne with only 10 negative points.
What are the best places to avoid heavy wind howls? ️
Following the same methodology, cities with the fastest Wind Speed scored the most negative points (maximum of -200). And this is the case for Southampton, Portsmouth and Swansea. These three cities are the windiest ones, losing 200 points each. If you're looking for a place with a pleasant chilly breeze, you better consider the historic town of Cambridge, as it has scored only 20 negative points for Wind Speed.
Where to expect less air frost in winter? ️
Although a layer of ice crystals is part of winter’s charm, it also means that air temperature is cold. For this reason, negative points were also given to the cities that have the most amount of Air Frost.
Poole, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Swansea scored the least negative points for Days of Air Frost. From the top 20 warmest cities, Cambridge, Oxford, Reading, Gloucester and Norwich scored the most negative points(-100). (If the full data provided in the excel sheet is considered, the results will change to Bournemouth, York, Bradford, Swindon and Leeds).
