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When the frosts come, station by station.

The average dates of the last spring air frost and the first autumn one at 30 Met Office weather stations across the UK, worked out from 30 years of daily records. Use them to plan, not to promise: the columns beside each average show how far the frost has strayed.

This is a guide, not a guarantee. Each figure describes what happened at one weather station between 1996 and 2025. Your garden may sit in a frost pocket or against a warm wall, and a single late night can undo any average, so don't plant out tender things on the average date alone.

UK frost dates by station

Stations are grouped by region. The averages are the middle of the spread, not the all-clear: the "latest" and "earliest" columns show the furthest the frost reached in either direction over the 30 years.

StationAverage last spring frostLatest last frost seenAverage first autumn frostEarliest first frost seen
Scotland
Lerwick13 April13 May 202020 November14 October 2024
Stornoway Airport15 April18 May 200522 November20 October 1998
Aberdeen Dyce29 April3 June 200027 October20 September 1997
Aviemore25 May22 June 202125 September17 July 2000
Leuchars30 April17 May 199630 October23 September 2012
Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden15 April17 May 19962 November27 September 2020
Eskdalemuir20 May17 June 19983 October27 August 1998
North of England
Boulmer8 April7 May 199720 November29 October 1997
Durham29 April26 May 20103 November9 October 2009
Carlisle19 April18 May 19961 November1 October 2018
Blackpool Squires Gate16 April18 May 19967 November5 October 1999
Sheffield9 April14 May 202021 November18 October 1998
Midlands
Waddington5 April7 May 199719 November28 October 1997
Nottingham Watnall6 April6 May 201214 November18 October 1998
Wellesbourne26 April16 May 19963 November5 October 1999
East of England
Cambridge Botanic Garden23 April16 May 19964 November6 October 1999
Marham24 April20 May 200831 October24 September 2003
London and the South East
Heathrow24 March7 May 199718 November21 October 2010
Wisley24 April20 May 200828 October24 September 2003
East Malling16 April15 May 20203 November4 October 2008
Oxford5 April12 May 202012 November19 October 2002
South West
Hurn26 April18 May 200525 October24 September 2003
Camborne20 February20 April 199712 December21 November 2018
Plymouth Mountbatten13 March28 April 201630 November29 October 2008
North Wyke3 April17 May 201319 November21 October 2003
Wales
Valley17 March27 April 201529 November29 October 1997
Aberporth4 March16 April 20126 December17 November 2005
Cardiff Bute Park8 April7 May 19969 November14 October 2012
Northern Ireland
Aldergrove16 April14 May 20209 November8 October 1998
Armagh16 April14 May 202011 November20 October 2002

Some stations went through whole half-years with no air frost at all, and those years are left out of that station's average rather than counted as a date: Stornoway Airport (2 autumns); Sheffield (1 autumn); Heathrow (1 autumn); Camborne (6 springs, 13 autumns); Plymouth Mountbatten (1 spring, 3 autumns); North Wyke (1 spring, 1 autumn); Valley (4 autumns); Aberporth (2 springs, 5 autumns); Cardiff Bute Park (1 autumn).

Reading it for your own garden

Pick the station most like your garden rather than simply the nearest: a coastal site, a city, an inland valley or high ground. The spread between them is wide. The latest last frost in the table is 22 June 2021 at Aviemore; the earliest first frost is 17 July 2000 at Aviemore.

These are air frosts. The Met Office says an air frost occurs "when the air temperature falls to or below the freezing point of water", and that it "is usually defined as the air temperature being below the freezing point of water at a height of at least one metre above the ground". It also notes that a ground frost can occur without an air frost. So the soil and low plants can freeze on nights that never appear here.

How the dates were worked out

For each station we read the daily minimum air temperature for every year from 1996 to 2025. A day counts as an air frost when any minimum air temperature reading ending on that day is 0.0 °C or lower. An overnight frost is dated to the day its reading ended. The last spring frost is the latest such day from 1 January to 30 June; the first autumn frost is the earliest from 1 July to 31 December. Grass and concrete minimum temperatures are not used.

A half-year only counts if the station reported a minimum air temperature on at least 90% of its days, and a station only appears if at least 25 of its 30 springs and at least 25 of its autumns count. Every one of the 30 stations chosen met that. Averages are taken over the counting years and rounded to the nearest day; the extremes are single readings, as recorded. Readings marked as observed and suspect are left out (detail below). The quality code on the minimum-temperature column has up to five digits (MESQL in the Met Office's MIDAS quality-control notes, checked 28 September 2026). 92.4% of the readings used carry a 6 alone, which the notes place in the last position: QC level 6, "Final (or only) areal or buddy job run and queries processed". The 3,605 readings with a status digit of 1, "Observed and suspect", are the ones left out; they count neither as a frost nor as a reported day. Everything else is used as supplied.

Source and licence

Met Office (2026): MIDAS Open: UK daily temperature data, v202607. NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis, 23 July 2026. doi:10.5285/1854bb17ec454841b04e243a1352f25a. Data from the CEDA catalogue record (doi.org/10.5285/1854bb17ec454841b04e243a1352f25a). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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