During a recent visit back home to Northern Ireland with the family I managed to visit Katesbridge and the famous weather station which frequently grabs national and international headlines for cold.
A beautiful little hamlet, population 135 located in the rolling countryside of Drumlin country, County Down, Few places on the island compete with Katesbridge for cold, particularly during the summer months.
While the hamlet itself is chilly and nestled within a low lying area surrounded by rolling hills, the official met office weather station for Katesbridge one could argue is located in a conveniently placed, higher elevated ‘frost hollow’ about 1.5 miles outside of Katesbridge.
Images from the official Katesbridge weather station.
Why so cold compared to surrounding area?
The Katesbridge chill appears to be more noticeable during the autumn, spring and summer months compared to winter, even in Northern Ireland (eg Castlederg, Tyrone). The Katesbridge site lies in a natural bowl in which under clear, calm conditions, radiational cooling takes place with the enhancement of cooling air running off the surrounding countryside collecting at the bottom of the ‘bowl’. As previously stated, one could argue that the station is conveniently placed right at the bottom of the ‘bowl’ where the coldest air collects..
I happened to have the privilege of meeting long term resident Sandy Ferguson and his wife who lives right next door to the famed station. He in fact gave me a tour of the official site as well as his own site in his back garden which he has taken rainfall/temperature measurements consistently from since 1963. When away from home, his neighbour takes the reading he told me.
Katesbridge: Often the UK’s coldest spot during summer
Not often is it just Northern Ireland or Ireland’s coldest spot but Katesbridge is is frequently the entire UK’s coldest place. While most winters see the Scottish Highlands record the lowest value of the winter, Katesbridge often takes the prize for the coldest summer temperature for the UK.
The reason why Katesbridge may step away from others for cold during the winter months is the lack of snow due to shelter and lack of elevation.
Notable Records
Spring/summer 2014/15 were particularly noteworthy
Despite it’s infamous cold reputation and frequency of being the UK’s coldest spot in summer, Katesbridge only holds the Northern Ireland cold record for March (-14.8C on 2 March, 2001) and August (-1.9C on 24 August, 2014) and although the all-time record minimum for the site is an impressive -17.8C set on 21 December, 2010, it’s Castlederg, Tyrone which holds the national record of -18.7C set the same month.
On 24 August 2014, Katesbridge hit a bitter -1.9C which set a new NI record surpassing a record set back in 1964.
In July 2015 Katesbridge once again grabbed the attention of the weather community by dipping to a very chilly and frosty 0.3C, a new record for the site, a very noteworthy cold morning by mid summer standards. Amazingly that new Katesbridge record would fall the following week dipping to -0.6C falling marginally short of the national July record of -1.1C set on 17 July 1971 at Lislap Forest, Tyrone.
Probably one of the most impressive cold readings of recent times came just 3 months prior to the cold July mornings with 27th April, 2015 recording a bitter -8.1C. Though not breaking the April record of -8.5C set on 10 April, 1998 at Killylane, Antrim, this 27 April reading is likely Northern Ireland’s coldest for so late in the spring. The May record is -6.5C set on 7 May and so it’s unlikely there was a recording colder than -8.1C at Katesbridge between 27 April and 7 May.
Katesbridge recorded Northern Ireland’s coldest temperature in 2014 and was the UK’s coldest spot on 13 occasions in 2011.
Here was my visit to Katesbridge weather station and chat with Sandy Ferguson.
MANY THANKS TO SANDY FOR SPENDING THE TIME CHATTING AND SHOWING ME THE SITE!
Here are some tweets regarding the cold readings recorded at the Katesbridge site during the past summer.
Morning. Current temps at 7am – just on the turn. Katesbridge dipped to 1.5C overnight. Cee pic.twitter.com/AymYyNQmVW
— Cecilia Daly (@WeatherCee) September 2, 2017
Brrr! It was a nippy start to the day in some parts of the UK this morning with Katesbridge in Northern Ireland falling to 0.5°C! #summer pic.twitter.com/vJirT2WlPU
— MetDesk (@metdesk) August 13, 2017
How's this for a diurnal extreme – Katesbridge in Co. Down peaked at 24.2C y'day and dropped to 4.4C overnight, almost a 20 deg range! Cee pic.twitter.com/LV6viDZYHS
— Cecilia Daly (@WeatherCee) July 18, 2017
It's been a chilly night and temps have dropped to just 0.8C at Katesbridge. They are on the rise now but it's still cool. Cee pic.twitter.com/3BwcOS1uCG
— BBC NI Weather (@newslineweather) July 1, 2017
With clear skies overnight, Katesbridge in Northern Ireland dropped close to zero last night. The average June minimum is 9 °C!! pic.twitter.com/74gQpl22RY
— Met Office (@metoffice) June 26, 2017
How cold? A frost this AM in Katesbridge NI 0C! A world away from the heatwave last week. A fresher start for all, single digits for many. pic.twitter.com/5VZ33Rh7Do
— Laura Tobin (@Lauratobin1) June 26, 2017
Katesbridge fell to -1.7 °C last night, then parts of Northern Ireland could get into the low twenties today; that's quite a diurnal range! pic.twitter.com/BjbaAAJABd
— Met Office (@metoffice) May 7, 2017
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