I live in the town of Hednesford (52:42:18N 1:59:33W) some 35-40km from Birmingham (UK), the nearest major city. The climate in Hednesford is fairly typical of the rest of the UK. Although the climate can be described as wet and mild (see charts), during the winter months temperatures regularly drop below freezing at night. The lowest ever recorded temperature was -26 degrees C (air temperature) at Newport in Shropshire (10th Jan ‘82). This extreme being uncommon, it is not unusual to experience temperatures as low as -9 degrees C (USD zone 8/9). Ground temperature is often much lower than the air temperature, typically lows of -8 to -12 degrees C.

The climate proves the biggest challenge for growing hardy cacti with the combination of wet conditions and freezing temperatures.

Moisture sensitive cacti show great signs of damage most winters, but there are many others that thrive in this climate.

Average Rainfall (Birmingham, UK)

 

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

mm

59.6

47.4

52.3

45.5

54.7

56.2

50.0

70.1

55.9

54.2

62.4

65.5

inches

2.3

1.9

2.1

1.8

2.2

2.2

2.0

2.8

2.2

2.1

2.5

2.6

Average and minimum temperatures

 

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Avg°C

3.4

3.4

5.4

7.6

10.8

13.9

15.9

15.5

13.2

10.1

6.2

4.5

Min°C

1.4

1

2.9

4

7

9.9

12.2

11.8

9.7

6.7

3.7

2.3