Paignton has warmed about 2°F between 1971 and 2024.
About 0.4°F per decade, measured from Paignton's official daily weather records, 1971–2024. Individual years still bounce around — some recent ones came in cool — but the long-term line has clearly risen.
Is that a lot? Paignton's climate has warmed more slowly than most other cities in United Kingdom.
What has actually changed
Each card compares the 1970s (the first ten years of the
record) with recent years (the last ten) — the same span
the headline and the chart use.
Freezing nights
3 fewer nights
1970s
18 / yr
→
Recent
15 / yr
Milder winters — fewer frosts
Average temperature
+1.5°F
1970s
51.3°F
→
Recent
52.7°F
A steady upward drift
Hot days above 90°F
about the same
1970s
0 / yr
→
Recent
0 / yr
About the same number of heat days
Rainy days
14 more days
1970s
172 / yr
→
Recent
186 / yr
Wetter on average
Paignton's temperature, year by year
Average temperature for each year from 1971 to 2024.
a warmer-than-average year a cooler-than-average year
Each bar is one year. Most recent years sit above the older ones.
Some recent years still came in cool — warming is a slope,
not a straight climb.
When in the year the change shows up
How much warmer each month is now than in the 1970s.
Useful if you garden or care about a particular season —
otherwise the headline above already has the answer.
April has warmed the most — about 1.3°F. The warming runs across the whole year, not just one season.
Methodology & sources
Temperature — 1991–2020 normals computed from 30 years of daily observations at Slapton, a weather station, about 17 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.