Climate
Colchester, is in one of the driest regions of the United Kingdom with average annual precipitation at 635 mm (25.0 inches), although among the wetter places in Essex. Colchester is generally regarded as having an Oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) like the rest of the United Kingdom. Its easterly position within the British Isles makes Colchester less prone to Atlantic depressions and weather fronts but more prone to droughts.
This is because like most areas in South-East England, Colchester's weather is influenced more by Continental weather patterns than Atlantic weather systems. This leads to a dry climate compared to the rest of the UK all year round and occasional (relative) extremes of temperatures during the year (occasional late 20°Cs/early30°Cs during the summer) and quite a few nights below freezing during the winter months (daytime high temperatures are seldom below freezing). Any rainfall that does come from Atlantic weather systems is usually light, but a few heavy showers and thunderstorms can take place during the summer. Snow falls on average 13 days a year during winter and very early spring.
The highest temperature recorded in Colchester was 36.1 °C (97 °F) in August 2003 (during the 2003 European heat wave), and the lowest was −9.4 °C (15 °F) in December 2010.
| Climate data for Colchester | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 7.0 (44.6) |
7.7 (45.9) |
10.9 (51.6) |
14.2 (57.6) |
18 (64) |
20.6 (69.1) |
23.4 (74.1) |
23.3 (73.9) |
19.9 (67.8) |
15 (59) |
10.3 (50.5) |
7.4 (45.3) |
14.8 (58.6) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 2.0 (35.6) |
1.7 (35.1) |
3.3 (37.9) |
4.7 (40.5) |
7.7 (45.9) |
10.7 (51.3) |
13.2 (55.8) |
13.0 (55.4) |
10.9 (51.6) |
8.1 (46.6) |
4.8 (40.6) |
2.7 (36.9) |
6.9 (44.4) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 53 (2.09) |
44 (1.73) |
44 (1.73) |
44 (1.73) |
52 (2.05) |
54 (2.13) |
48 (1.89) |
57 (2.24) |
52 (2.05) |
70 (2.76) |
62 (2.44) |
57 (2.24) |
635 (25) |
| Source: 1981-2010 estimated average (records began in 1988) for COL station Colchester NE 2 | |||||||||||||
Read more about this topic: Colchester
Famous quotes containing the word climate:
“The question of place and climate is most closely related to the question of nutrition. Nobody is free to live everywhere; and whoever has to solve great problems that challenge all his strength actually has a very restricted choice in this matter. The influence of climate on our metabolism, its retardation, its acceleration, goes so far that a mistaken choice of place and climate can not only estrange a man from his task but can actually keep it from him: he never gets to see it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Culture is the name for what people are interested in, their thoughts, their models, the books they read and the speeches they hear, their table-talk, gossip, controversies, historical sense and scientific training, the values they appreciate, the quality of life they admire. All communities have a culture. It is the climate of their civilization.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“Ghosts, we hope, may be always with us—that is, never too far out of the reach of fancy. On the whole, it would seem they adapt themselves well, perhaps better than we do, to changing world conditions—they enlarge their domain, shift their hold on our nerves, and, dispossessed of one habitat, set up house in another. The universal battiness of our century looks like providing them with a propitious climate ...”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)