As bizarre as it may seem, Slough has been crowned the warmest place in the UK during winter - beating the likes of seaside city Brighton to the top spot.

That's according to a new study that has used climate data to measure how a temperate winter is for the biggest places in the UK.

The study is based on factors such as minimum and maximum temperature, hours of sunshine, wind speed, and the likelihood of rainfall and frost.

And among the 50 biggest places in the UK, Slough came out on top. It scored highly thanks to relatively better minimum and maximum temperatures and hours of sunshine.

Even its relatively high maximum temperature is a chilly 8.1C, with a minimum of a nippy 2.4C - that's still above freezing.

Slough typically has 63.8 hours of sunshine during winter, and 50.4mm of rainfall each winter.

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Meanwhile, Reading has a colder average temperature at 7.9C. Reading also gets more frost than Slough.

The figures are based on the positives which make a place warmer and the negatives which make a place colder.

Although a layer of ice crystals can be part of winter’s charm, it also means that air temperature is cold.

Slough got 7.8 days of air frost, Reading got 9.4 days. Reading also gets more rain and wind than Slough as well.

During the winter, Reading gets 55mm of rainfall in winter, whereas Slough gets 50.4.

And at a height of 10 metres, the wind hits quicker in Reading, at 8.1 knots, compared to 7.2 knots in Slough.

Slough managed to beat out seaside spots such as Poole, Bournemouth and Brighton for the top spot.

And out of the 50 places assessed, Reading was named the 15th warmest place in the UK in winter.

You can see the data for Reading and Slough in the table below:

Town Max temperature Minimum temperature Days of Air Frost (days) Sunshine (hours) Rainfall (mm) Days of Rainfall >1 mm (days) Monthly mean wind speed at 10 m (knots) UK rank
Slough

8.3C

2.4C

7.8

63.8

50.4

9.9 7.2 1st
Reading 7.9C 1.9C 9.4 59.9 55.0 10.3 8.1 15th


And here are the top 15 places in the UK which have the 'warmest' winters.

  1. Slough
  2. Sunderland
  3. Poole
  4. Southend-on-Sea
  5. Ipswich
  6. Plymouth
  7. Newcastle
  8. Southampton
  9. Portsmouth
  10. Cambridge
  11. Brighton
  12. London
  13. Oxford
  14. Bristol
  15. Reading, Berkshire

The study was conducted by heating and boiler experts HeatingForce.co.uk.