Climate-Zone.com

HomeCitiesUnited KingdomEnglandReadingTools › Weather extremes

Weather extremes

How extreme does Reading's weather get?

The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest days Reading has recorded — the outer limits of what its weather can do, and how far they sit beyond a normal day.

Based on 50+ years of daily weather observations (1971–present), from the Wallingford station 19 km away. Updated through March 2026 — an all-time extreme only changes when a more extreme day actually occurs, so some dates are old. That is normal, not stale data.

The four kinds of extreme

The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest single days Reading has recorded — each shown against what a normal day that time of year looks like.

🔥 Hottest day
100°F Jul 18, 2022

That is about 27°F hotter than a normal July afternoon in Reading (typical high near 73°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 100°F Jul 18, 2022recent
2 98°F Jul 24, 2019
3 97°F Jul 30, 2020
❄️ Coldest night
-6°F Jan 14, 1982

About 41°F colder than a normal January night in Reading (typical low near 35°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 -6°F Jan 14, 1982
2 -4°F Jan 15, 1982
3 1°F Dec 13, 1981
🌧️ Most rain in one day
2.57 in Sep 20, 1980

More rain in a single day than Reading usually gets in the whole month of September (typical September total about 2.3 in).

The three most extreme on record

1 2.57 in Sep 20, 1980
2 2.32 in Aug 16, 1977
3 2.21 in Sep 22, 1992

How hot and cold it gets, month by month

The shaded band is the normal range of daily temperatures for each month. The dots show the most extreme it has ever been — so you can see how far beyond a normal day the records really sit.

-30°-10°10°30°50°70°90°110° all-time high 100°F JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
normal range of daily temperatureshottest ever recordedcoldest ever recorded

Reading's record heat sits well above even a hot day for the season — July's 100°F is about 27°F beyond a normal hot afternoon. Its record cold is just as far below a normal winter night — the dots mark how rare each extreme really is.

In plain terms

In a normal year, Reading's warmest days reach the low 70s°F and its coldest nights drop to the mid-30s°F. But across the record it has gone as high as 100°F and as low as −6°F. A single day has delivered over 3 inches of rain. Those are the outer edges worth knowing if you are moving here, planning a trip, or thinking about a house.
Methodology & sources

Temperature & precipitation — 1991–2020 normals computed from 30 years of daily observations at Benson, a weather station, about 20 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →