Region experiences coldest September night for 15 years

Temperatures at Santon Downham, near Bury St Edmunds, dropped to -2C this morning: making it the coldest September night for 15 years.

Dan Holley from Norwich based forecasters Weatherquest said on Twitter: “Santon Downham at -2C this morning, making it the coldest September night for 15 years, and the first time we’ve had 2 air frosts in the month of September since 2003 (prior to that, 1990!).

“In other words, it’s not very often we have nights this cold so early in the season.”

Forecaster believe that the cold temperatures have a number of possible causes.

Firstly the region has experienced large blocks of weather since around February or March.

These included large areas of high pressure and in the shorter autumn days this means a lot of the heat gets radiated out to space.

Another reason forecasters are giving for the low temperatures is the lack of moisture in the ground.

With little rain in recent weeks the dry ground is losing heat a lot more easily, which can lead to frosts.

The last time such cold weather was experienced in September in parts of our region was 2003 which also featured a long hot summer, similar to his year’s.

Forecasters say that these early low temperatures won’t have a real bearing on how cold this winter is likely to be,however, with a number of factors - including the formation of El Nino - set to have an impact on this.