Weather in 1826

Madden does not always record his impressions of the weather, but we have extracted the relevant text here for ease of reference.

Date	Location	Description
1 January	London	Miserable, wet dirty day.
8 January	London	a bitter cold day, & hard frost.
9 January	London	Still hard frost.
12 January	London	Hard frost still, & infernally cold.
14 January	London	It has been a very hard frost for these three or four last days, & the Canals are frozen over.
15 January	London	Very fine day, but excessively cold.
16 January	London	Dreadfully cold. […] A thick fog.
20 January	London	Thaw all day, & frost disappeared
21 January	London	Dull day.
22 January	London	Foggy day.
4 February	London	Very dirty day.
5 February	London	Fine day.
14 February	London	Miserable wet day.
18 February	London	Fine.
19 February	London	Wet day.
20 February	London	It came on to rain hard, — & I got wet through.
26 February	London	Beautiful day.
1 March	London to Fakenham	a day without rain
19 March	Holkham Hall	Cold day.
24 March	Fakenham to London	The day proved uncommonly cold, & the whole way from Fakenham to Brandon it snowed & hailed.
28 March	Brighton	Beautiful day.
9 April	Oxford	lovely day
16 April	Oxford	a most lovely day
21 April	Oxford	Rain after dinner
27 April	Oxford	wet evening
29 April	Oxford	Very cold weather.
30 April	Oxford	Fine day.
5 May	Oxford	It is still exceedingly cold in the morning & evening, & more like November than May.
7 May	Oxford	Lovely day.
18 May	Oxford	The weather is lovely
20 May	Oxford to London	It poured hard until we arrived at Henley, but then cleared up, & the remainder of the day was beautiful.
21 May	London	Lovely day.
24 May	London	It rained hard the whole of the Evening.
28 May	London	a very wet day
29 May	London	Wet again […] pouring with rain, which never ceased the whole day.
30 May	London	Rain again all the Evening.
2 June	London	Rain all day.
4 June	London	Very fine.
23 June	Oxford	The weather is now extremely warm.
25 June	Oxford	Very warm still
29 June	Oxford	Very warm still
3 July	London	The weather still continues insufferably warm
8 July	London	It rained hard till 12 oC.
9 July	London	very warm
13 July	London	It came on to rain hard [at 4 o clock], & I was wet through, but it was merely a shower.
15 July (St Swithin)	London	Rain in the night, but none all day; on the contrary, very fine.
16 July	London	Rain all the mor[nin]g. (damn St. Swithin!)
21 July	London	In the Ev[enin]g […] It rained
23 July	London	Rain in torrents all the morning. [After 5 o clock] the rain had now in great measure subsided
30 July	London	Very warm.
19 August	London	Lovely day.
25 August	London	a severe thunderstorm passed over the metropolis about 9 oC. in the Ev[enin]g.
2 September	London	A very wet day.
6 September	London	It poured the whole day.
7 September	London	Rain again all day in heavy showers.
8 September	London	Rain again, but no so heavy.
13 September	London to Oxford	a very sultry day
15 September	London to Brighton	a lovely day
17 September	Brighton	Fine day
22 October	Portsmouth	Wet morning
25 October	Portsmouth	Wet, damp day
27 October	Portsmouth	Rain nearly all day.
28 October	Portsmouth	Very fine day but cold.
29 October	Portsmouth	Cold dull day.
30 October	Portsmouth	Dull all the morn[in]g, but mild.
31 October	Portsmouth	Very fine.
1 November	Portsmouth	Cold
2 November	Portsmouth	Fine, but cold.
3 November	Portsmouth	Cold and rain.
4 November	Portsmouth	Cold & rain.
5 November	Portsmouth	Cold
6 November	Portsmouth	Fine but cold.
7 November	Portsmouth	Fine but cold.
8 November	Portsmouth	Sharp frost in the morn[in]g
9 November	Portsmouth	Fine but cold.
10 November	Portsmouth	Rain all day.
11 November	Portsmouth	Rain in morn[in]g.
12 November	Portsmouth	Rain all day.
13 November	Portsmouth	Rain & wind.
14 November	Portsmouth	Fine but cold.
15 November	Portsmouth	Very fine day.
16 November	Portsmouth	Fine.
17 November	Portsmouth	Fine, but showery.
18 November	Portsmouth	Fine.
19 November	Portsmouth	Rain.
20 November	Portsmouth	Cold & dull.
21 November	Portsmouth	Fine.
22 November	Portsmouth	Fine.
23 November	Portsmouth	Fine.
24 November	Portsmouth	Rain and glass falling.
25 November	Portsmouth to London	Fine till one oC. Then rain the rest of the day.
26 November	London	Hard frost.
28 November	London	Rain all day.
29 November	London	Rain again all day.
30 November	London	Rain all day.
1 December	London	Rain all day
2 December	London	Rain all day.
3 December	London	Fine, but showers.
4 December	London	Fine but cold.
5 December	London	Rain all day.
6 December	London	Rain all day.
8 December	London	Rain all the morning.
10 December	London	Rain all the day.
11 December	London	Rain all day.
12 December	London	Rain, all day
13 December	London	Fine but dirty
16 December	London	Rain still
17 December	London	Dark damp day.
18 December	London	Rather better weather.

NB – this may be incomplete and we will review it as entries are released throughout 2026.