PARWICH.ORG

Now that we have reached the month of March, with spring time hopefully just around the corner, let’s take a look back at the last six months of Parwich weather, based on the daily maximum and minimum temperatures supplied by our “weatherman on the hill”.

With the “great freeze” of December 2010 still fresh in our memories, it scarcely seems possible to imagine a warm, sunny day in Parwich – and as our figures show, we haven’t enjoyed a temperature of over 20 degrees since Thursday September 9th. However, a warm spell in early November gave us an unexpected high of 16.4 degrees on Thursday November 4th – after which, it was downhill all the way.

Just nine days later, on Saturday November 13th, the maximum temperature in Parwich reached double figures for the last time in 2010 – and it didn’t rise to double figures again until Thursday January 13th, exactly two months later.

Although our first sub-zero temperature was recorded overnight on Monday October 25th, the first “great freeze” didn’t start in earnest until Wednesday November 24th. This marked the first of a whopping sixteen consecutive sub-zero nights, lasting until Thursday December 9th. During that time, the temperature dipped below minus 10 degrees on four nights, reaching its coldest – a positively Arctic minus 12.2 degrees – on Monday December 6th. Other villagers reported tempertaures as low as minus 15.5 degrees on the same morning – while out by Tissington Ford, one driver from the village recorded a gobsmacking minus 22 degrees.

Parwich’s second major cold spell struck on Friday December 17th, just in time for Christmas. This time round, the sub-zero nights lasted eleven days, ending on Monday December 27th. And for the five day period between December 17th and Monday December 21st, the maximum temperature in the village never once rose above zero.

During January and February, things started to improve – despite a further cold spell at the end of January, and a somewhat chilly mid-February. We had five days of double-figure mildness from Friday February 4th to Tuesday February 8th, our last sub-zero temperature was recorded in the early morning of Tuesday February 8th, and last Thursday’s 13.4 degree maximum gave us our warmest day since early November.

For the stats-lovers amongst you, here are some charts, which illustrate the last six months of maximum and minimum temperatures: from September 1st to February 26th.

The first chart shows the actual daily temperatures. To view full-size versions of all these charts, please click on each smaller image.

The next chart plots rolling five-day averages, so that we can see the overall trends more clearly.

Finally, this chart has been plotted against ten-day averages. The peaks and troughs are shallower here, but the overall trends are more visible than before.