We’re too small to have our own weather forcast so here are the ones for Brandon and Thetford – take your pick – whichever is better or Check somewhere else at Metcheck
Although we don’t have our own forecast we do actually have one of the Met Offices weather stations where they record temperature etc.
We also have our own private weather station for which we publish live and historical data.
As a consequence we hold the dubious record of the all-time coldest June temperature of -5.6C, shared by Dalwhinnie in Scotland in 1956 and Santon Downham in Suffolk in 1962.
We also hold records for hottest and wettest thanks to our unique location an explanation of which is here.
2002 Saw a notable hailstorm in July as recorded by the Metoffice and featured on the front page of the local newspaper (Bury Free Press),
19th to 25th More changeable during this period with southern areas staying mainly dry apart from the odd outbreak of light rain or drizzle. A small active low crossed central Britain on the 19th to 20th bringing heavy rain at times to the Midlands and northern areas. At Sutton Bonington, Notts, 25 mm fell in 2 hours overnight. A severe hailstorm was observed at Santon Downham on the 20th, while East Anglia, Lincolnshire and east Kent had thundery showers later. Some hill and coastal fog affected south-western parts during the 25th.
May 2010 also saw new records with the coldest temperature in the UK (since 1996) being recorded in Santon Downham as reported in the Daily Express and the Daily Star
A low of -4.2C being recorded on the 12th followed by an East of England high the next day of 13.7C.
The 3rd of June saw a low of 1.7C. BBC Weather
2010 continues to be a year of extremes with the 22nd of July being notable for 30.8mm of rain in Santon Downham.
While the previous day the 21st saw us with the highest temperature in the UK of 23.6 BBC Weather
The night of the 27th of Novermber 2010 saw many places with a new record low for November. Northern Ireland reached a new low of -8.6C (17F) at Aldergrove, in Belfast, while in Sennybridge, in Powys, the record was broken with -14.3C (6F). Santon Downham had it’s own low of -5.8C recorded by one of it’s residents – with it still being -5.5C at 10:00am the next day.
The forcast for early November 2010 looked bleak with expected windspeeds over 300mph. Alas I suspect it was just a fault with the website. (See picture above/right)
2010 continues to be a record breaking year. A low of -8.9 being recorded by residents of the village. (Watch this space as December is not yet over and many consider January and February to be Winter proper).
2011 started well with Santon Downham recording the warmest temperature in the UK of 23.9C on 6th April and featuring on the BBC weather and numerous national newspapers. According to the Telegraph it was the warmest 6th April on record.
The previous highest temperature in the UK on this date was 23.3C (73.9F) in Southampton in 1892.
But in typical Santon Downham form we also recorded the lowest overnight temperature (in England) on the night of the 10th of April at -1.3C
SD narrowly missed being the hottest place in the UK on the 27th of June with a creditable 32.5C just below Gravesend at 32.8C
October 2nd Santon Downham shared a new record with Cambridge of 29.3C, which made it the hottest October 2nd since 1908. (The previous day was the hottest October day ever with 29.9C recorded at Gravesend).
Our fame spread as far as the Washington Post (only their weather blog).
Not soon after setting a record for being the warmest place we also picked up another for being the coldest. Sunday the 16th of October saw early morning temperatures drop to -1.9C.
The coldest temperature measured in the U.K. during October was -3.3°C at Santon Downham, Suffolk on October 20th. (as reported on http://www.wunderground.com)
November continues to be very mixed, but we picked up the UK lowest night time minimum of 4.1C on the 10th.
2012
Despite the mild start to 2012 Santon Downham continues to be one off the coldest places in the UK. Overnight on the 18th of January it was the coldest at -4.2c. While on the same day Exeter airport recorded a temperature of 13.9c.
February was cold with records broken up and down the country. Santon Downham one of the coldest at -16C on the morning of the 11th of February matching Holbeach.
However a few weeks later we were basking in temperatures of above 18C on the 23rd. The 18.7C reading at Coleshill near Bermingham was the highest, although there were also a few others over 18C, including East Malling in Kent and Santon Downham, Suffolk, which both registered 18.2C.
(Correctly recorded as Suffolk by the Filey and Hunmanby Mercury)
The 15th of March saw Santon Downham warmer than Barcelona. The Telegraph reported the temperature of 17.6C in Santon Downham, Suffolk – it was just 14C in Cannes and Nice in the south of France; 15C in Crete,16C in Barcelona, and Malta; and 17C in Paphos. Yet again Gravesend was the warmest at 19C.
Friday the 23rd saw Santon Downham being the warmest in the the East of England with an unseasonably warm 19.1C. Sunday had Scotland setting a new record of 22.8C which beat the previous high set in 1965.
A wet April and May saw Santon Downham retain it’s record for the warmest day of the year for some time.
After a mostly poor month of May the weather broke towards the end of the month with something of a mini heatwave with Santon Downham keeping it’s hottest of the year with a temperature of 27.7C.
See ITV’s website for details
Despite an awful lot of rain Santon Downham was still at the top on hotest day of the year (so far) on the 28th of June with 27.9C.
With temperatures still in the high 20s being recorded in early September it’s time for Santon Downham to look toward the winter. Santon Downham managed to be the coldest place overnight on the 6th of September recording a chilly 1.6C.
December got off to a good start with Santon Downham being the coldest place in the UK on the night of December 2nd. We managed a chilly -4.8°C. (Residents recorded a temp of -7.8C on the night of the 12th of December).
You can also look at what the weather/traffic is like in nearby Brandon and on the M11 via Traffic Cams
2013
After a cold winter when things finally turned and Spring started with Santon Downham being the warmest place since last September at 22C on the 14th of April.
A few days later on the 21st we picked up the coldest night on the 21st when temperatures dropped to -4.2C.
Shortly after on the 25th the EDP reported Norwich hotter than Barcelona,Istanbul and Los Angeles:-
it is not usually Norwich airport which claims that glory. It is usually the tiny north Suffolk village of Santon Downham, near Brandon, which takes the credit.
Dan Holley, forecaster at University of East Anglia-based Weatherquest explained: “Santon Downham has quite sandy soil and tends to be one of the hottest places, but it all depends on cloud cover and wind direction and lots of factors.
“It just happened that Wednesday it was Norwich airport.”
Santon Downham was once again the hottest place in the UK as the summer drew to an end on the 5th of September with 29.1C.
2014
We started the year off with the lowest temperature recorded in East Anglia during the winter 2013/14 with a temperature of -5.0°C at Santon Downham on the 12 January 2014. In contrast, the lowest temperature during winter 2012/13 was -13°C and -16°C the year before that.
Early March (9th) saw us record the highest temperature in the Anglia region at 20.4°C (68.7°F).
The UK maximum was only a shade higher at Gravesend in Kent at 20.5°C.
In contrast, the Spanish capital topped out at 19.5°C while in Rome the maximum was 18.7°C. On the Greek Mediterranean island of Rhodes the highest temperature recorded at the airport was 16.2°C.
Santon Downham is well known for its extremes of temperature but June 7th saw it gain a new one as the wetest place in the country (albeit briefly).
Under the heading Storms not as bad as predicted the Belfast Telegraph reported
“The heaviest downpour was registered in Santon Downham, Suffolk, which saw 0.7in (18.2mm) fall in one hour, followed by 0.6in (16.4mm) falling in Bickley, Worcestershire, the Met Office said.”
As 2014 drew to an end Santon Downham once more featured in the news – The lowest temperature recorded in the first half of December in the Anglia region was -4.2°C at Santon Downham on the Suffolk-Norfolk border.
The lowest temperature recorded so far in 2014 was back in January when the thermometer fell to -5.0°C also at Santon Downham.
We’ve not been in the news for a while.
2016
After a mild but long winter and wet spring the spring the sign of summer final came on the 7th of May. Santon Downham once more was the hostest place with a temp of 24.9C. Once again
the temperature in East Anglia was warmer than Barcelona, Spain where it was 20°C along with Minorca (15°C), Rome (21°C) and Rhodes (22°C). Predictions for the Sunday (the 8th) were that temperatures would top 26C. We weren’t the hottest at 26.1C (London beat us by 0.9C) but it was pretty close (and hot).
After a mixed summer, Santon Donwham basked in a heatwave in early September. When the heatwave broke thunderstorms followed – Dan Holley, forecaster at Weatherquest, tweeted that on the morning of the 16th that Santon Downham, recorded 35mm of rain in just one hour this morning (from 10-11am), 63% of its average monthly rainfall. Total rainfall for the day was over 50mm.
2017
June saw record temperatures across the country with one of the hottest June’s since the summer of ’76. As the hot month ended the rain started and Santon Downham claimed the dubious record of the wettest place in the country. ITV reported we had 78mm of rain (more than fell in April and May) on the 27th/28th of June. The Daily Star reported that it was our wettest day since records began in 1960!. Our fame was reported across various news sites.
July also brought a few chilly nights and the temperature dropped to 4.7°C on the 13th in Santon Downham in Suffolk.[ITV]
2018
January started cold with high winds (and a power cut) and snow settling. Despite weeks of near freezing weather Jan 23rd saw one of the warmest days with SD r
ecording a temperature of 11.9C.
February began cold and carried on with the forecast prediciting it lasting into March. SD drew the Met Office’s attention on the 7th/8th when they Tweeted a temperature of -6C. (See right)
June and July saw a prolonged stretch of hot weather. We were hot but never quite the hotest. July23rd saw that change – “33.3C recorded by the Met Office earlier at Santon Downham in Suffolk, making it the hottest day of the year so far!”
Watch this space as hotter days are forecast.
Alas two days later Heathrow claimed the hottest day of the year.
As the summer came to an end and with various storms lashing the country we still managed to pick up a record for the hottest place in the country – 26C for the 17th of September. Still technically summer as Autumn doesn’t start until the Equinox (the 23rd this year) but not bad for September
2019
Much of the first half of the year was unremarkable, with Santon Downham featuring in the news for local records in East Anglia. The end of July saw temeratures soar with records predicted to be broken. Cambridge eventually claimed the new record of 38.7C (101.7F) on Thursday beating the previous UK record of 38.5C (101.3F), set in Kent in 2003.
Almost a year ago (the 23rd) saw SD being the hottest place in the UK at 33.3C. Alas this July we didn’t claim trhe UK hottest but it was probably the hottest on record for SD when on the 25th we managed 36.3C. (See the screengrab from my phone —>)
The August Bank Holiday was hot also – the hotest on record again. Heathrow scooped the overall records, but SD also beat the previous records topping 31.8C on the Monday which beat the previous record of 28.2C for the BH Monday and 31.5C for the BH weekend. (Previous records were at Heathrow).
2020
Amidst all the coronovirus news, Santon Downham’s weather managed to be notable. On the weekendof the 4th/5th of April warm temperatures were experienced with 20C being exceeded for the first time this year.. Porthmadog in North Wales saw the warmest temperature, with the mercury reaching 22°C
Santon Downham had to be different – we reached 19.5°C and a low of -1.4°C in a 24hr period.
May 20th saw the hottest day of the year so far. SD took the title with 28.2C and featured on multiple news websites as a result. The number who picked up on this was also something of a record.